📍 Today in health, it nurses strike about the use of AI in healthcare. Today. We're going to talk about it. And what that might tell us. My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator this week health set of channels and events dedicated to transform healthcare. One connection at a time. We want to thank our show sponsors who are investigating, developing the next generation of health leaders. Notable service now, enterprise health parlance. Certified health and Panda health.

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All right today, we're going to take a look at the implementation of technology and what could possibly go wrong.

Quite frankly, we already know we went through the EHR implementation, so it shouldn't be that hard to recognize what is going on. So this is. A story nurse national nurses, United California nurses association, CNA demands, patients safeguards against artificial intelligence. Technology. So on Monday, April 22nd, hundreds of registered nurses and members of the California nurses association from across the state will hold a protest at Kaiser Permanente's San Francisco medical center to highlight their patient safety concerns about the use of AI and the hospital industries rushed to implement on tested and unregulated AI. Okay.

So they have patient safety concerns. And they have concerns at the pace at which this is moving and they have the concerns around. The rigor of the testing that is being done around this. As it moves into the use. Of care and their setting. So let's see, here's a quote. It is deeply troubling to see Kaiser promote itself as a leader in AI, in healthcare. When we know their use of these technologies comes at the expense of patient care. All in service of boosting profits.

Okay. That's a loaded, I'll let the Kaiser leadership deal with that one. Essentially, you have a nurse who's working for you, who essentially says you're in it for the profits. That's not what I'm going to deal with, but that's what they're saying. Yeah. A long time registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente, Fremont medical center, and CNA president had that to say nurses are all for tech.

Fantastic. And by the way, this is the message of this entire show today, which is we want to invite as many people to the table as possible to have these discussions and to be a part of these discussions, especially the caregivers, especially the nurses. They say nurses are all for tech that enhances our skills and the patient care experience. Great.

We believe that this tech is going to do that. It is going to enhance their skills. And the patient care experience. Now it is incumbent upon us to bring them to the table and make them a part of the process and give them a voice at the table. So that we make sure we're doing this correctly. Did we not learn anything from the EHR implementation?

Hopefully we did. Hopefully, we're going to invite as many voices to the table as possible. We are going to be as transparent as possible. We're going to do measurement. We're going to do peer reviewed studies on the use of AI. Hopefully we're going to do all those things. Okay. So that's the first sentence. From the CNA president, but what we are witnessing in our hospitals is the degradation and devaluation of our nursing practice.

I can guarantee you that is not the intention of anyone who's bringing this technology. To bear in their health system. But that is what people are feeling. And that is an important voice. We do not want to degrade or devalue the use of nurses or their skills. In this process. In fact, we cannot be successful in the implementation of AI in any hospital, without the nurses. Okay.

So that is not the intention. We have a problem. Let's see. But we were witnessing in our hospitals is the D degradation and devaluation of our nursing practice through the use of these untested technologies. Untested technologies is another. Word, I would want us to look in on how are we vetting this technology?

How are we measuring the use of this technology? How are we making people aware of. The findings of what we are doing. Are we piloting this? And are we being transparent in the findings of our pilots? Okay. As patient advocates, which the nurses are, we are obligated to speak out. Great. We demand that workers and unions be involved at every step of the development of data-driven technologies and be empowered to decide whether and how AI is deployed in the workplace. And again, I'm not going to break apart that entire sentence, but I will say this. We invite the nurses to the table.

We want the nurses at the table. We absolutely need the nurses at the table. We know that the implementation of technology is only a small piece. Of the puzzle. The algorithm is a small piece of the puzzle. The larger piece of the puzzle is the integration of what we find into the workflow. Into the hands of caregivers who are going to interact with the patients.

As far as I know, we don't have AI. Interacting directly with patients yet maybe through chat bots and that kind of stuff. And even that needs to be vetted. But we don't have AI delivering care just yet. And we don't anticipate that any time in the near future. And when I say near future, in the next decade That we see a care actually being delivered by AI.

With that being said, AI is going to permeate healthcare over the next 10 years. In order to do that effectively, just like the EHR is essentially a ubiquitous across all of healthcare. AI will be ubiquitous across all of health care within the next 10 years in order to do that without the same pain that we've gone through over the last two decades. We need transparency.

We need testing. We need four voices at the table of caregivers. So that we make sure we do this correctly. All right. I think that's all for today. This is yeah. It's a one day strike there. They're making a point. To Kaiser and the Kaiser Permanente leadership team that they want to be heard on this subject.

And I agree with them, they should be heard on this subject. We should learn from our past mistakes and make sure that the clinicians. Have a seat at the table. They have a voice that is heard and that a voice that is not only heard, but is leading the charge on the use of AI. And until we get to that point, We should slow down. All right.

That's all for today. It's kinda interesting because yesterday I was saying, Hey, speed up. And today I'm saying slow down. So what are you hearing? Yesterday, I was saying speed up in terms of your testing in terms of your understanding of the technology, learn as much as you possibly can. Figure out where your, you believe it's going to be used. Lead the conversations with the clinicians find the champions. So speed up in that regard, get the governance set up.

Absolutely. Get your policies, understand what your principles are around AI. Move fast in that regard. Slow down in terms of the implementation of the technology until you have the organization and the culture ready for the technology, or you're going to end up slowing down anyway. All right. That's all for today. Don't forget, share this podcast with a friend or colleague.

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