Connect node

The Connect node hands the patient over to another journey, ending this one, or starts the other journey alongside, carrying values across.

The Connect node (code name Handover) moves a patient into another journey. With Handover, this journey ends once the patient is admitted to the other one. With Spawn, this journey carries on and the other runs in parallel. Values from this journey can be carried across as the other journey's starting values.

The panel notes: Calls the target’s standard Start — rejections leave the source alive. The other journey makes its usual enrolment checks, so a patient can be refused, for example by its cooldown. If that happens, this journey keeps running.

When to use it

An antenatal journey hands over to a postnatal journey after delivery.
A screening journey starts a separate treatment journey for patients who test positive, and keeps running its own follow-up.

To start a journey for a different person and link the two, use the Involve node instead.

Configuration

Field	What it does	Options and default
Label, Notes	See Label and Notes.	—
Variant	Whether this journey ends. Required.	Handover — source instance terminates on successful admission (default) or Spawn — source continues; a parallel program joins.
Target journey	The journey to admit the patient to. Required. May be the same journey — restart-with-context.	Your journeys.
Bridge mappings	Values to carry across. Each row has a Target field (a starting value of the target journey) and an Expression (read from this journey). Add a row with Add mapping.	Optional.
Target patient (optional)	An expression for a different patient to admit. Defaults to same patient; target record must exist.	Empty: the same patient.
Handover outcome label	Handover only. The outcome this journey ends with. Recorded on the source’s termination.	`handed_over`.
Skip this step when…, If this step is already in the past (Advanced)	See the overview.	—

Outcomes and branches

Pick one of these in the connection editor's Outcome list:

Outcome	When
Admitted to the other journey	The patient was admitted.
Already in that journey	The patient is already on the target journey.
Refused by its cooldown	The target journey refused the patient. See the limitation below.
Could not be admitted	The admission could not be completed.

With Handover, a successful admission ends this journey straight away, so do not plan further steps after Admitted to the other journey. Connect the other outcomes so a refused patient is not left without a path.

What happens when it runs

The values in Bridge mappings are read from this journey. A mapping whose expression has no value is not carried across.
The patient (or the target patient) is put forward to the target journey, which makes its usual enrolment checks.
The step finishes with one of the outcomes above.
With Handover and Admitted to the other journey, this journey ends with the Handover outcome label as its outcome, with outcome kind neutral.

Patients do not see this step directly; they start receiving whatever the target journey sends. Staff see a new run appear on the target journey and, with Handover, the patient's run of this journey end. Why a patient was refused is shown as described in Why a patient was not enrolled.

Example

Hand over from antenatal to postnatal care.

After the delivery event, add a Connect step.
Variant Handover, Target journey Postnatal care.
Bridge mappings: lmp_date → initial.lmp_date; baby_count → initial.expected_babies.
Handover outcome label delivered.
Connect Already in that journey and Refused by its cooldown to an Engage step asking the care coordinator to check the patient's journeys.

Tips and limitations

Start bridge mapping expressions with context., initial., nodes. or patient.; anything else is passed as fixed text.
Make sure the target journey declares the fields you map, so its steps can read them.
When the target is this same journey, the patient is still on it when Connect asks for admission, so the request is usually refused as Already in that journey. Test a restart design on a test patient before you rely on it.

Refused for other reasons

Refused by its cooldown is also the outcome when the target journey refuses the patient for any other reason. Check Why a patient was not enrolled for the actual reason.

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