Hundreds of nurses gathered at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center this week to protest the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care.
The protest was organized by the California Nurses Association, which believes the hospital industry is rushing to implement AI technology that is untested and unregulated — and that could harm patients.
According to a video posted by the San Francisco Chronicle on X, nurses held signs reading “Trust the nurses, not the AI” and chanted “AI must go!” »
The association calls on nurses and all union members to be involved in the decision-making process for the deployment of AI at “every stage”, with Kaiser Permanente an early adopter of AI and other data-driven technologies.
A statement from Michelle Gutierrez Vo, BSN, RN, registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fremont, Calif., and president of the California Nurses Association, says: “It is deeply troubling to see Kaiser portray itself as a leader in AI in health care, when we know that their use of these technologies comes at the expense of patient care, all in the service of increasing profits.
“Nurses are all supportive of technology that improves our skills and patient care experience. But what we are seeing in our hospitals is the degradation and devaluation of our nursing practice through the use of these untested technologies.
Cathy Kennedy, registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente Roseville (Calif.) Medical Center and president of the state nurses association, agrees, saying, “Human expertise and clinical judgment are the only ways to ensure safe, effective and equitable nursing care. .
“We know there is nothing inevitable about AI advancements in healthcare. No patient should be a guinea pig and no nurse should be replaced by a robot.
In response to this action, Kaiser Permanente released the following statement: “Kaiser Permanente empowers nurses with cutting-edge tools and technologies that support our mission of providing affordable, high-quality health care to best meet the needs of our members and patient needs.
“We have consistently invested in and adopted technology that allows nurses to work more efficiently, resulting in better patient outcomes and improved nurse satisfaction, and we will continue to do so.
“At Kaiser Permanente, AI tools do not make medical decisions, our doctors and care teams are always at the center of decision-making with our patients. We believe AI may be able to help our physicians and employees, and improve our member experience. As an organization dedicated to inclusion and health equity, we ensure that the results of AI tools are correct and unbiased; AI does not replace human assessment.
The United States took an aggressive stance on the topic of AI safety last year. In October 2023, President Biden issued an executive order aimed at protecting Americans from potential risks related to technology.
Here in the UK, following the AI Security Summit in November last year, the The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency outlined new plans in January this year to protect patients while allowing immediate access to new innovative medical technologies, including AI.
A 2022 thought leadership report from DAC Beachcroft found that trust in AI among patients and healthcare staff will improve with regulation. It remains to be seen exactly what this regulation will look like.