Industry guide
QR codes for clinics and healthcare providers
Healthcare QR codes must never be the only route to clinical information, and they must not carry patient data. Use them for check-in, directions, appointment booking and aftercare leaflets — with a printed alternative always available.
Never encode patient data
A QR code is plain text that anyone who photographs it can read. Do not put names, NHS or insurance numbers, diagnoses, or appointment details identifying a person into a code that will be printed on a letter, a wristband or a door.
Use an opaque identifier resolved by an authenticated system. The code says which record; the system decides who may see it.
Accessibility is a legal matter here
Patients disproportionately include people with low vision, cognitive impairment, no smartphone, or no data. A QR-only route to aftercare instructions, consent information or medication guidance is an access failure with real consequences.
Always: printed alternative available without asking, linked pages as real HTML with proper heading structure, plain-language text, and no PDF-only documents.
Where codes genuinely help
| Use | Placement |
|---|---|
| Waiting-room check-in | Reception desk, at seated height |
| Wayfinding to a department | Entrance and each junction |
| Appointment booking and rescheduling | Letters and posters |
| Aftercare instructions | Discharge leaflet |
| Interpreter and accessibility services | Reception, in multiple languages |
| Feedback | Exit door |
Wristbands
Clinical wristbands face alcohol gel, which dissolves many inks. Specify a gel-resistant print or a laminated insert, keep the payload to a short opaque id, and expect a 2 cm code at most — see wristbands.
Signage in a hospital
Corridor signage is scanned from 1–3 m: 10–30 cm of code. Mount at 1.4–1.6 m. Matt laminate — hospital corridors are brightly and evenly lit, which is exactly the condition that produces glare on gloss.