An investigation published July 9 by CalMatters documented call monitoring, predictive productivity software and monthly performance scores used on Kaiser Permanente advice nurses in California. Interviews with seven current and former nurses found that staff are questioned about calls lasting more than 15 minutes and receive monthly scores tracking their speed and activity. Software also records active and inactive time and attempts to predict whether nurses are unproductive or answering too slowly.
Pa Vue, a call center nurse and union representative, recalled having her score reduced after repeating advice to a patient whose symptoms suggested a possible heart problem. She had also seen scores fall when nurses departed from software recommendations. Raquel Alvarez Sanchez remained on the telephone with a suicidal patient for more than an hour until police arrived, knowing the call would affect her average handling time for weeks. As a union steward, she has accompanied colleagues to performance meetings after calls that were handled correctly except for exceeding 15 minutes.
Another nurse withheld the additional time and compassion she believed an elderly patient needed after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis because she feared damaging her score and being reprimanded. Nurses said they are told to limit themselves to two or three pieces of advice, although calls requiring an interpreter routinely take more than 30 minutes.
Nurses said the time allowed after calls has fallen from about 10 minutes to 30 seconds or less when lines are busy; extra time requires a manager’s permission. In 2024, Kaiser also piloted software that graded tone and apparent empathy in the voices of nurses and patients. One nurse said the program repeatedly scored calls incorrectly. Nurses petitioned against it, and Kaiser suspended the pilot in November, but they were told it could return. Kaiser declined to say whether patients knew their voices were being assessed. Charlotte Capulong, a 22-year call center veteran, told CalMatters: “You aren’t calling Comcast. We’re dealing with life here.”
It’s not crazy; they’re providing way too much care, gotta pare that back. Why wouldn’t someone want to talk to an unaccountable AI bot after all with some disclaimer that the info may not be correct?
Imagine the kind of implication this action has; either the nurse’s expertise isn’t useful(uhhh), or the management has so little understanding of the difference in contextual and specific expertise vs. generalized data that they think it can replace it.
Terrifying either way, but welcome to the profit machine.