From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs: Horizon Health Transforms with VoiceOver PRO

In the fast-paced world of pathology, efficiency, accuracy, and turnaround time aren’t just metrics—they’re critical to patient care. Horizon Health Network, a healthcare organizations in New Brunswick, Canada, knows this better than most. Their Moncton laboratory, which processes roughly 18,000 surgicals and 200 autopsies annually, recently underwent a dramatic transformation thanks to one powerful change: adopting VoiceOver PRO from Voicebrook.

The Breaking Point: Generic Software and Endless Transcription

James Dixon, Pathology Lab Manager for Horizon’s Moncton and Miramichi locations, knew the status quo wasn’t working.

“Our old software was kind of multipurpose, not specifically designed for pathology, and it was terrible,” he explained. “It wasn't recognizing specific pathology terms, we were having errors in our patient reports… Our reports didn’t look professional, and turnaround times were awful because we spent so much time fixing things after the fact.”

It wasn’t just the software that created issues. Hardware limitations and a noisy gross room environment made accurate dictation nearly impossible. Secretaries were transcribing reports for 20 hours a day across the department, leading to a lagging turnaround time for reports, and frustration was mounting on all fronts.

“It wasn’t efficient for anyone,” Dixon said.

The Turning Point: VoiceOver PRO

Recognizing the need for a pathology-specific solution, Horizon implemented VoiceOver PRO—and saw results almost instantly.

“All of our PAs are using it, and all of the pathologists except for one who still needs training,” said Dixon. “Our staff started seeing the payoff right away.”

Training, he said, was quick and effective. “It was only like an hour or two before they were up and running! I thought it would take a couple of days, so that was a big shocker for me.”

Real-Time Results: Time Saved, Quality Improved

Once VoiceOver PRO was in place, transcription time dropped by a staggering 90%.

“Before when we were just doing straight up transcription, secretaries were transcribing on average about 20 hours per day. With PRO, that’s been reduced to about two hours per day,” Dixon shared. “It’s a fraction of what it once was.”

That change has allowed pathologists to manage cases much more efficiently. Dr. Muhammad Rasul, who had used PRO at a previous site in the U.S., advocated for bringing the software to Horizon.

“Using PRO is a big improvement for us here. We had a hard time with transcription keeping up with our dictations before. Now with PRO things are very smooth,” said Dr. Rasul. “We sign out the case when we want to, and everything is within our own control.”

The accuracy of PRO’s speech recognition technology also made a major impact.

“Good pathology transcriptionists are hard to find,” said Dr. Emmanuel Maicas, Chief Pathologist, noting the specialty's unique vocabulary and demands. “We had a very good one who just retired, with 30 years of experience, and VoiceOver PRO is definitely just as good as she was."

A Whole Day Gained

One of the most impressive outcomes of the PRO implementation? A 24-hour improvement in turnaround time.

“With PRO, we automatically save 24 hours on our turnaround time, because we're not waiting on anybody to transcribe reports or having to go back and check those reports for accuracy,” said Dixon.

Dr. Maicas echoed that benefit: “Even under ideal circumstances, a human transcriptionist can take more than a day to finish transcribing a case. But Voicebrook has given us a 24-hour improvement on our TAT.”

Every Hour Counts

That time savings extends to the pathologists themselves. Horizon pathologists are saving an hour a day, every day with VoiceOver PRO.

Dr. Rasul elaborated: “Sometimes, the larger cases take time to transcribe [with traditional transcription], and before signing off… you had to look back again to review it. That could take hours." But that bottleneck is gone now. "So honestly, when you add up many cases, it adds up to many hours saved with VoiceOver PRO.”

Standardization Clinicians Appreciate

The team also embraced VoiceOver PRO’s synoptic reporting features and CAP checklist automation.

“Before we got PRO we were putting synoptic reports into our AP/LIS system ourselves and that was very tedious and time consuming,” said Dixon. “We had hired people specifically to make sure these things were updated and they failed… We ended up just using Word documents and cutting and pasting the checklists ourselves.”

Now, clinicians receive clear, standardized reports—and they’re noticing the difference.

“Clinicians do not have any struggle reading our reports and finding what they're really looking for because it’s standardized,” said Dr. Rasul. “They are getting the latest CAP checklist, and it looks the same for every pathologist signed out… so nothing is missing.”

Hardware That Handles the Hustle

VoiceOver PRO also solved Horizon's gross room hardware woes.

“PRO’s software is quite flexible and works with a lot of hardware options,” said Dixon. “The hardware Voicebrook supplies works quite well in our noisy and busy gross room.”

A Better Lab Environment for Everyone

With transcription needs nearly eliminated, the lab was able to reassign staff to other critical tasks—supporting send-outs, managing specimens, and easing the workload on histology technicians.

“This helped the histology lab, reducing the stress level in the lab,” Dixon said. And the response from staff? “People will come up to me and say, I can't go back to traditional dictation, I need this software!”

A Model for Other Labs

Perhaps the strongest endorsement of all: Horizon Health Network is now exploring implementing VoiceOver PRO in its other three pathology lab locations.

“There really isn't anything negative I can say about VoiceOver PRO,” said Dixon. “It's very viable for us.”

Horizon Health Network’s Moncton lab has not only streamlined its workflow with VoiceOver PRO—they’ve elevated it. With reduced turnaround times, improved accuracy, better formatting, and more time in the day, the entire lab is operating at a higher level.

That’s the kind of transformation that makes a real difference in patient care.

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