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.
— 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 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, Horizon Health Network
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 United 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.”
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
Increased pathologist efficiency
The efficiency gains don’t stop there. Pathologists at Horizon are each saving an hour every day since implementing VoiceOver PRO. 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. Pathologists dictate and sign out when they are ready. It saves time and keeps them focused on what matters.
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, 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. Not only do they know their checklists are current, but they value the standardized formatting that helps clinicians find the information they need.
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 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 speech recognition offers accuracy, support for accents, and multiple dictation configurations to meet the needs of many 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 with helping to streamline the entire lab’s processes and balance its workflow. Even with the near-total elimination of transcription, no employees were laid off. With PRO, the door was opened to redefining the responsibilities of the secretaries and maximizing the team’s impact. With transcription work reduced, secretaries were reassigned to support areas like send-outs, receiving specimens, boxing, and filing, easing pressure on the histology lab.
Perhaps the most resounding measure of client satisfaction is when a customer expands: Horizon Health Network has three other pathology lab locations, and the impressive results at Moncton have led those labs to investigate 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. The whole department became more efficient. People will come up to me and say, ‘I can’t go back to traditional dictation, I need this software!’
— James Dixon, Lab Manager, Horizon Health Network