"Kaiser nurses say technology is making their jobs — and patient care — worse,"

Kaiser Permanente nurses who answer advice and triage calls say their duty of care for patients is being increasingly threatened by workplace surveillance.

Seven current and former nurses told CalMatters that those who spend more than 15 minutes on a call with a patient routinely face criticism from Kaiser management or get called into performance evaluation meetings. Call time, they said, factors into monthly performance scores they receive.

In addition to tracking call length, they said Kaiser uses software that tries to predict on a daily basis whether they’re being unproductive or failing to answer calls quickly. Artificial intelligence systems have also been used to rate their empathy and tone of voice...

Kaiser defended its use of AI, saying it deploys the technology with patient safety in mind and does not use “average handle time” to assess performance...

Nurses are instructed to stick to a script on phone calls and give no more than two to three pieces of advice, Capulong and other nurses said, which means they may sometimes need to decide whether to withhold advice or face a performance evaluation hearing....

Nurses reported feeling harassed by existing surveillance, “and that was intensified when they said we’re going to use AI to evaluate our calls and grade us,” said Sanchez.

Another nurse speaking on condition of anonymity said “AI did not understand our job and would grade us wrong all the time.”

A Kaiser spokesperson declined to respond to questions about the AI tool or answer questions about the use of AI and other automated systems in the company’s call centers and healthcare facilities, including for evaluating nurse performance or whether patients were informed about the use of AI to evaluate their empathy and tone.

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