Kaiser Nurses Feel Watched by AI on Calls

Nurses who work the advice and triage lines at Kaiser Permanente say they feel watched all the time. Their bosses look at how long each call lasts. If a call goes beyond fifteen minutes, the nurse might be called into a meeting about performance. They say this call time shows up in their monthly scores.

The hospital also uses computer programs that try to guess if a worker is being lazy or slow to answer. Some of these programs even give a score for how kind the voice sounds or how much empathy is shown. The nurses’ union is talking about a new contract this month, and artificial intelligence is a big topic. In March the nurses held a one‑day strike over AI, and they protested again last fall. Lawmakers in California are looking at bills that would stop bosses from punishing staff who ignore a computer’s advice.

Raquel Alvarez Sanchez has been an advice nurse in Vallejo since 2010. Last year she spent more than an hour on the phone with a person who felt suicidal. She stayed on the line until police arrived, trying to make the caller feel cared for. She knew that such a long call would hurt her average call time and could bring questions from managers. Sanchez, who also helps the union, says she has gone with coworkers to review meetings where everything else was fine except the call length. She has not seen anyone fired for this, but she worries the pressure could push nurses to quit or retire early.

Another nurse, who asked not to be named, described a call with an older woman who just learned she had terminal cancer. At first the nurse thought the woman might be suicidal, but then realized she was in shock and just needed someone to talk to. The nurse wanted to stay and give comfort, but she stopped herself because she feared it would lower her monthly score and bring a reprimand. She became a nurse to give kind care, yet she wondered if she would be punished for going off script or saying more than needed. Kaiser Permanente says its tools are meant to improve care and that it does not rely on average handle time to judge performance.