Horizon Health Network reduces turnaround time by 24 hours and saves pathologists a full hour each day with VoiceOver PRO. 

Horizon Health at a Glance

Horizon Health Network is one of the largest healthcare organizations in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, serving patients across multiple hospital sites. Within Horizon’s Department of Pathology, the Moncton laboratory is a busy, medium-sized department handling approximately 18,000 surgicals and 200 autopsies each year.

The Moncton lab team includes:

• 7 pathologists
• 7 medical technologists
• 4 pathologists’ assistants (PAs)
• 2 lab assistants
• 1 autopsy tech
• 3 administrative secretaries
  
  

The Challenge

Inaccurate Software Not Built for Pathology

James Dixon is the Pathology Lab Manager for Horizon Health Network’s Moncton and Miramichi lab locations. He explains that Horizon’s Moncton lab previously relied on a medical dictation solution not designed specifically for pathology. The result? Error-prone, inconsistent, and inefficient reporting.

“The old software was kind of multipurpose, not specifically designed for pathology, and it was terrible. It wasn't recognizing specific pathology terms, we were having errors in our patient reports. People were having to go back and correct the reports after they were done dictating. It was a mess, and our pathologists were frustrated. The secretaries were trying their best to fix things, but things were slipping through the cracks. And just generally, our reports looked unprofessional, and our turnaround times were lousy too, because we were spending a lot of time backtracking and fixing mistakes.It wasn't recognizing specific pathology terms. We were seeing mistakes in patient reports—important details being missed or misinterpreted. People were frustrated. Pathologists had to go back and fix reports, and sometimes errors slipped through. Our reports didn’t look professional, and turnaround times were awful because we spent so much time fixing things after the fact.”  -James Dixon, Lab Manager

Additionally, the generic solution’s hardware caused issues in the lab. Dixon says the vendor claimed it was compatible, but it performed poorly in their busy gross room. “It’s a tight space with a lot of background noise, and the equipment just couldn’t handle it. That meant even more errors in our reports—it just wasn’t sustainable.”

Long Turnaround Times and Overburdened Staff

The Moncton lab’s transcription process was a bottleneck. Dixon says their secretaries were transcribing cases for hours each day—an average of about 20 hours per day across the department. There was always a backlog. Everyone was chasing dictations, editing drafts, or checking old cases before sign-out. Says Dixon: “It wasn’t efficient for anyone.”

The Solution: VoiceOver PRO

Recognizing the need for a pathology-specific pathology reporting solution, Horizon’s Moncton lab implemented VoiceOver PRO from Voicebrook. The results were immediate.

Quick Training, Fast Buy-In

Dixon didn’t expect the staff to adapt to PRO so quickly. “But all of our PAs are using it, and all of the pathologists except for one who still needs training,” Dixon says. “Our staff started seeing the payoff right away, when they realized that the reports can be signed out a lot sooner, and there's none of that back and forth with transcriptionists.”

Horizon was surprised that Voicebrook’s training was so thorough and designed to get staff online quickly. Says Dixon: “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. I was very happy about that.”

The Results

90% Reduction in Transcription Time

There used to be a steady backlog of dictations that needed to be transcribed. Now with PRO, Dixon says that “simply doesn’t exist anymore” with PRO reducing their transcription by 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. It’s a fraction of what it once was.” -James Dixon, Lab Manager

The pathologists note how much simpler it is to manage their cases without needing to chase down transcription. Dr. Muhammad Rasul, a pathologist at Horizon, had previously used Voicebrook’s software at another site in the Unites States. “So, I was familiar with PRO, and that's why I wanted to get it here at Horizon. My experience using it here is definitely as expected, and it's even improved a lot since I last used it.”

“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. Nobody needs to go back to review things that they dictated two days ago before they sign out. We sign out the case when we want to, and everything is within our own control.” -Dr. Muhammad Rasul, Pathologist

PRO’s speech recognition accuracy has led to major improvements in report quality, eliminating errors in reports. Dr. Emmanuel Maicas, Chief Pathologist, was impressed with PRO, saying he finds it “very useful to reduce errors.” 

“Good transcriptionists are hard to find. 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. What I can say is that Voicebrook is at least as good as a good medical pathology transcriptionist.” -Dr. Emmanuel Maicas, Chief Pathologist

24-Hour Improvement in Turnaround Time

Because PRO allows the user to review their dictations in real-time, eliminating the transcription bottleneck, Horizon is now enjoying a remarkable improvement in turnaround time for pathology cases: a 24-hour improvement! Shaving off a whole day makes a big difference, especially for urgent cases.

“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.” -James Dixon, Lab Manager

“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. We're shortening our turnaround time by one whole day.” -Dr. Emmanuel Maicas, Chief Pathologist

Increased Pathologist Efficiency

The efficiency gains don’t stop there. Pathologists at Horizon are each saving an hour every day since implementing VoiceOver PRO. 

Why the change? When dealing with complex cases, pathologists used to wait days for transcription, then go back and review everything before signing. With PRO, that’s gone now. Pathologists dictate and sign out when they are ready. It saves time and keeps them focused on what matters

 “Our pathologists are saving an hour a day, every day with VoiceOver PRO.” -James Dixon, Lab Manager

“The main thing is, with PRO we don't need to go and look back at the cases later. Sometimes, the larger cases take time to transcribe [with traditional transcription], and before signing off as the pathologist you had to look back again to review it. That could take hours and it's just one case. So honestly, when you add up many cases, it adds up to many hours saved with VoiceOver PRO.”  -Dr. Muhammad Rasul, Pathologist

Improved Report Quality and Standardization

Lab Manager Dixon says their team has embraced VoiceOver PRO’s synoptic reporting features. They appreciate that their CAP cancer checklists are fully automated, standardized, and up-to-date. 

“Before we got PRO we were putting synoptic reports into our AP/LIS system ourselves and that was very tedious and time consuming. Updating the CAP checklists had created a lot of work for us. We had hired people specifically to make sure these things were updated. And they failed—they came in and messed things up because they were not familiar with pathology and made a mess of things. We ended up just using Word documents and cutting and pasting the checklists ourselves.” -James Dixon, Lab Manager

Not only do they know that their checklists are up-to-date, but they appreciate the standardized formatting that helps clinicians find the information they need. It’s consistent and clear.

“Clinicians do not have any struggle reading our reports and finding what they're really looking for because it’s standardized. All the formatting is uniform for the oncology group. I'm getting feedback from them… some have even called me! It’s very positive feedback. They are getting the latest CAP checklist, and it looks the same for every pathologist signed out, so clinicians know they can now look directly at a certain place in the checklist to find what they are looking for, and nothing is missing.” -Dr. Muhammad Rasul, Pathologist

Hardware That Fits the Environment

No more issues with noisy environments impacting the quality of the reports. Voicebrook’s best-in-the-industry speech recognition has incredible accuracy and offers support for accents as well as multiple dictation configurations to meet the needs of multiple users.

“PRO’s software is quite flexible and works with a lot of hardware options. The hardware Voicebrook supplies works quite well in our noisy and busy gross room, so we're happy with that.” -James Dixon, Lab Manager

Lab-Wide Efficiency Gains

Dixon also credits PRO in helping to streamline the entire lab’s processes and balance their workflow. 

“The whole department became more efficient. A good pathology reporting software like VoiceOver PRO doesn't just help with patient reports. I think people need to realize it can be used for helping out in other places in the lab, too.” -James Dixon, Lab Manager

Even with the near-total elimination of transcription, no employees were laid off. With PRO, the door was opened to redefining the job responsibilities of the secretaries and maximizing the team’s impact.

Dixon explains that with transcription work reduced, they have reassigned secretaries to support areas like send outs, receiving specimens, boxing, filing and other duties. “This helped the histology lab, reducing the stress level in the lab, because the techs are usually very busy and they're receiving slides and blocks and packaging stuff and sending stuff back out. Now the secretaries are taking over that task,” Dixon says. 

The staff reaction? Overwhelmingly positive. 

“People will come up to me and say, I can't go back to traditional dictation, I need this software!” -James Dixon, Lab Manager

Perhaps the most resounding measurement of client satisfaction is when they become a repeat customer: Horizon Health Network has three other pathology lab locations. The impressive results at the Moncton location have led to those labs now investigating the option of implementing VoiceOver PRO in the near future. 

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

Conclusion

With VoiceOver PRO, Horizon Health Network’s Moncton pathology lab has drastically improved turnaround times, improved pathologists’ efficiency, increased accuracy, enhanced report quality, and restructured internal workflows—all while boosting team morale.

This transformation has not only made pathology reporting faster and more reliable but has also positioned Horizon as a leader in adopting modern, pathology-specific solutions to meet the demands of today’s healthcare environment.