Kaiser nurses say AI, surveillance are making their jobs and patient care worse
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Kaiser nurses say AI surveillance and call time pressure harm patient care.
Kaiser Permanente advice nurses say they face pressure to keep calls under 15 minutes, with performance scores tied to call length. AI tools test empathy and tone, and nurses fear repercussions for lengthy calls, including those with suicidal patients. Nurses say short call windows and scripts limit compassionate care. Kaiser denies using average handle time for performance assessment and says AI is used responsibly with human oversight. The California Nurses Association is negotiating a new contract, with AI as a key issue. California lawmakers are considering bills to regulate AI in the workplace.
What commenters are saying
Commenters broadly condemn algorithmic performance evaluation for nurses, calling it a dystopian misapplication of AI that prioritizes profit over patient care. Some argue that customer surveys or supervisor review are preferable to AI empathy scoring, while others dismiss the idea that AI can meaningfully assess empathy. A few commenters defend the need for some form of performance monitoring in large organizations, but most see this as a symptom of corporate healthcare's cost-cutting culture.