What to do when Rad AI Reporting is down

On rare occasions, Rad AI Reporting may not be available to you. This could be because of a technical issue on our side, or due to an internet outage. 

This guide outlines the steps to create and manage radiology reports during downtime scenarios. 

In this article: 

1. Check your network connection
2. What happens to dictation when the network is down
3. Only Rad AI Reporting is down 
   • Prerequisites
   • Verifying system status
   • Dictating reports using a word processing program
   • Entering reports into Rad AI Reporting
4. Full internet outage
   • Prerequisites
   • Verifying system status
   • Recording voice notes
   • Entering reports into Rad AI Reporting

 

Check your network connection

Confirm whether the issue is with Rad AI Reporting or your network:

1. In the main navigation menu on the left-hand side, click the Wi-Fi icon to reveal the network status indicator.
   
   
    

2. Review the overall Network Status, based on your browser’s own measurement of connection quality (latency and bandwidth): 
    

   • Excellent – Strong connection; unlikely to affect Reporting performance.

     💡 It can show "Excellent" even on slower-theoretical networks (for example, switching from a 5 GHz Wi-Fi network to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi or a mobile hotspot) if your signal is strong and actual bandwidth/latency are good.
   • Fair – Usable connection, but you may notice occasional delays. To improve performance, you can:
      
     • Close unused browser tabs (especially streaming, downloads, or other heavy web apps).
        
     • Move closer to your Wi-Fi router or access point.
        
     • Disconnect idle devices that may be using bandwidth on the same network.
        
     • If available, switch to a wired (Ethernet) connection for a more stable link.
       
        
   • Offline – Reporting can’t reach the internet from your browser. To restore connectivity:
      
     • Check that your workstation is connected to the network (Wi-Fi is enabled and connected, or your network cable is fully plugged in). 
        
     • If you’re on a home or small-office network, try restarting your router or modem. 
        
     • If you’re on a hospital or clinic network—or restarting equipment isn’t an option—contact your local IT support and include a screenshot of the Network Status panel and the time the issue started.

If the indicator shows Excellent or Fair—and other internet‑based tools such as your email, PACS worklist, or intranet are working—it likely indicates that only the Rad AI Reporting application is down. Follow the steps in Only Rad AI Reporting is down.

If the indicator shows Offline—or other apps and sites are also slow, failing to load, or timing out—it likely indicates a broader internet or network issue. Follow the steps in Full internet outage instead.

 

What happens to dictation when the network is down

Rad AI Reporting includes three speech services:

• Advanced – The default cloud-based speech service that blends several advanced speech recognition models to reduce transcription errors in reports. 
   
• Standard – An alternative cloud-based speech service, suitable for most reporting tasks.
   
• Offline – A local speech service that runs on your workstation and does not depend on the cloud.
  

When Rad AI Reporting can’t reach cloud-based speech services—because of an internet problem or a speech-service outage—you'll see a notification advising you to switch to the Offline speech service.

💡 Some users are switched automatically to the Offline speech service. If this happens, the notification informs that you've been switched.

To switch to the Offline speech service:

1. Go to Personal Settings > Speech.
    
2. Under Speech Service, choose Offline. 
   
   

Once connectivity is restored, Rad AI Reporting sends you a notification so that you can switch back to Standard or Advanced.

Use the Offline speech service only when:

• Your internet connection is down or very unstable
   

• The cloud speech service is experiencing latency or an outage

Keep in mind:

• The Offline speech service uses a different model and may be less accurate, especially for complex medical language.
   
• Switching speech service to Offline only affects dictation. Other features (signing reports, sending ORU messages, AI Omni features, and other cloud-powered tools) still require a working internet connection and may be unavailable while you are fully offline.

Learn more about Rad AI Reporting's speech services.

 

Only Rad AI Reporting is down

If most of your software is online and available, but Rad AI Reporting is unavailable, dictate reports with a word processing program and then send the reports with some identifying information to clerical staff. Once Rad AI Reporting is available again, staff enters the reports for your review and approval.

Prerequisites

• Access to your PACS for retrieving reports. 
   
• A computer with a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs, for dictation.
   
• Clerical or administrative staff for report entry and verification once Rad AI Reporting becomes available again. 

Verifying system status

1. If Reporting appears to be down, wait two minutes for automatic recovery.
    
2. If connectivity is restored, continue normal reporting. If not, proceed with the steps below.

Dictating reports using a word processing program

1. Open your PACS.
    
2. Copy the accession number of the study you want to work on, and any other key identifiers used by your organization. 

 

3. Open a new document in your word processing program.
    
4. Paste your copied study information into the document. It should look something like this:
   
   
   
    
5. Find the Dictate or Voice typing tool in your word processing program.
    

6. Dictate your report, speaking as clearly as possible.

   💡 Built-in dictation engines may be unreliable if offline. In this case, please follow the full internet outage steps.
7. Make any necessary edits to ensure your findings have been captured correctly.
    
8. Start a new section in the document for each report, placing the accession number at the top of each section.

Entering reports into Rad AI Reporting 

1. Save the document and send it to the clerical team at your site.
    
2. Assistants can use the accession numbers to find and open studies, then enter reports into Rad AI Reporting once available again. Use the Omni Box for a faster workflow.
    
3. Assign the report to the radiologist to review, edit, and sign the final report.

💡 Clerical assistants can use Reporting’s multi-author workflow features to mark reports as ‘ready for review’ and assign a finalizing author. This ensures the reports will show up in the radiologists signing queue for review.

Full internet outage 

If you have no connection to the internet, then cloud features—including dictation tools—for Rad AI Reporting, PACS, and word processing programs are unavailable. Record voice notes until the internet is available, at which time you can send the notes to clerical staff for entry.

Prerequisites

• Access to a voice recorder on your computer, e.g. Windows Sound Recorder. 

Verifying system status

1. If Reporting appears to be down, wait two minutes for automatic recovery.
    
2. If connectivity is restored, continue normal reporting. If not, proceed with the steps below.

💡 If your computer has Wi-Fi enabled, you may be able to reconnect to the internet via tethering, using your phone’s mobile data. Check your organization’s network security policies first.

Recording voice notes

1. Open your PACS so you can reference studies and their accession numbers.
    
2. Open a voice recorder on your computer, such as Windows Sound Recorder. 
    
3. Dictate your report, speaking as clearly as possible.
    
4. Save your recording locally to your computer, using the accession number as the file name.
    
5. Send the audio files to the clerical team at your site (this may not be possible until the internet is restored).

Entering reports into Rad AI Reporting 

Clerical assistants can follow these steps once your internet connection has been restored. 

1. Click on the search bar in the top-right corner of the Worklist. 
    
2. Reference the radiologist’s audio file and enter the accession number into the search bar.
    
3. Open the report and click the Omni Box.
   
   
   
    
4. Play back the radiologist’s recorded voice notes into the microphone that’s connected to Rad AI Reporting. The report gets transcribed.
    
5. Assign the report to the radiologist to review, edit, and sign the final report.

💡 Clerical assistants can use Reporting’s multi-author workflow features to mark reports as ‘ready for review’ and assign a finalizing author. This ensures the reports will show up in the radiologists signing queue for review.