Nurses rally against AI overreach at Kaiser
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — Hundreds of nurses protested Kaiser Permanente’s increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in San Francisco.
The California Nurses Association organized the April 22 demonstration to coincide with Kaiser’s Integrated Care Experience conference, where the healthcare giant touted its AI leadership.
“Kaiser’s use of these technologies comes at the expense of patient care, all in service of boosting profits,” said Michelle Gutierrez Vo, a nurse and association president.
“Nurses support tech that enhances skills and care experience, but we’re witnessing the degradation of nursing practice.”
Protest over patient care concerns
While Kaiser claims AI tools merely assist physicians, nurses argue the technologies undermine their clinical judgment. Overreliance on AI could deskill nursing by reducing holistic patient assessments to discrete tasks.
The nurses demand involvement in decision-making around AI deployment to ensure human expertise guides patient care.
“No patient should be a guinea pig, and no nurse should be replaced by a robot,” stated Cathy Kennedy, another association president.
AI as healthcare augmentation
Meanwhile, Kaiser Permanente noted that AI is a tool meant to help physicians and care teams deliver top-notch care.
“As an organization dedicated to inclusiveness and health equity, we ensure the results from AI tools are correct and unbiased; AI does not replace human assessment,” a Kaiser spokesperson said.
A number of health systems in the U.S. have equipped hospital suites with AI-laced cameras and sensors to monitor patients.
Health leaders believe that these tools give floor nurses complementary data that could aid in the healthcare decision tree.
“To provide care, you need to be able to see and hear the room,” said Michael Brandofino, president and COO of Caregility
“We don’t want to replace caregivers. What we want to do is augment the information they have,” he noted.
