Amber Retzloff, a critical care nurse in Florida, has faced significant challenges since her hospital adopted a new AI scheduling tool called Timpani. The tool, developed with Palantir, has consistently disrupted her preferred shift requests, leading to back-to-back shifts and leaving her mentally drained. Retzloff’s experience is echoed by other nurses at HCA Healthcare, the largest hospital chain in the US.

The nurses claim that Timpani has negatively impacted patient care by causing teams to be understaffed and imbalanced. It often schedules too few nurses, particularly on Sundays, or ignores their preferences for spacing out shifts. The result is that nurses are spending more time trading shifts and appealing their schedules. Some are even calling out more frequently, risking termination.

Harlow Sumerford, an HCA spokesperson, asserts that nursing leaders make final scheduling decisions and that assertions about the tool reducing staffing are unfounded. However, the nurses’ complaints have led to minor updates to the software but not a fundamental change. National Nurses United, representing about 10,000 of HCA’s 100,000 nurses, has complained that the company has rejected their requests for information about the technology.

The story of Timpani is a reminder of the potential pitfalls of relying too heavily on AI. As HCA’s top innovation executive, Michael Schlosser, noted, the tool was supposed to save time and money. But the reality is that nurses are spending more time managing the software’s shortcomings than ever before.