AI Is Making a Mess of Nurses’ Schedules. They Say It’s a Safety Issue

Since 2023, HCA Healthcare, the largest hospital chain in the U.S., has been using an AI scheduling tool called Timpani, developed in partnership with Palantir. This tool is now in use at approximately 130 out of its 190 locations. However, nurses across various HCA locations are growing increasingly unhappy with Timpani, with many reporting that the tool has caused safety concerns.

Five nurses from different HCA hospitals, interviewed by WIRED, expressed their dissatisfaction with Timpani. They claim that the software routinely schedules insufficient nurses or inadequate experienced staff on shifts, particularly on Sundays. Additionally, Timpani frequently disregards nurses’ preferences for managing shift spacing, working night shifts, weekends, or time off.

Consequently, nurses find themselves spending more time trading shifts or appealing their schedules compared to prior to the software's introduction.

One nurse, Retzloff, who is also a labor union leader, recalls situations where all four of her colleagues were junior nurses, forcing her to delay care for the most critical patients and manage less experienced nurses. She argues that HCA is allowing AI to dictate scheduling decisions, overriding clinical judgment and the human-to-human aspect of healthcare.

Previously, managers handled scheduling manually, with nurses being consulted in advance about any exceptions. Now, with Timpani, nurses must make alternative arrangements with less notice and face increased temporary reassignments to different teams.

HCA's spokesperson, Harlow Sumerford, maintains that scheduling decisions are made by nursing leaders, not Timpani. He argues that the company's goal is to have the right caregivers with the appropriate skills and experience available to meet patient needs while considering nurses' preferences. Sumerford states that HCA is continually improving Timpani based on nurse feedback. However, despite minor updates to the software, complaints persist nationwide.

The labor union representing about 10,000 of HCA's 100,000 nurses has requested information about the technology from the company, but so far, HCA has rejected these requests. A former HCA data science manager, Angelique Russell, recently sued the company for allegedly firing her in retaliation for raising concerns about Timpani.

Russell claimed that HCA routinely deletes data the tool uses to create schedules, making it impossible to audit the tool's effectiveness and potentially violating healthcare laws. HCA has yet to respond formally to the lawsuit and Russell has declined to comment.