Latest news with #MichelleMahon
Irish Times
27-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Dublin traffic changes: Pearse Street ‘noticeably quieter' since left-turn ban
Traffic congestion appeared reduced along Pearse Street on Tuesday morning as the latest stage of a plan restricting and rerouting private traffic in parts of Dublin city centre took effect. With its traffic changes, Dublin City Council aims to reduce travel times for buses coming into the city centre via the quays. The first phase of the plan came into force last August, with a ban on private cars and commercial vehicles travelling directly east or west along the river Liffey at either side of O'Connell Bridge between 7am and 7pm daily. The second phase, which became operational on Sunday, involves a ban on private traffic turning left from Westland Row into Pearse Street. READ MORE While some private cars attempted to use the left-hand turn at the junction, traffic appeared quieter than usual along Pearse Street during Tuesday morning's rush hour. The latest phase of the Dublin City Centre Traffic Plan, which came into operation on Sunday, involves a ban on private traffic turning left from Westland Row into Pearse Street. Image: Paul Scott New signage and traffic management stewards were positioned at the junction between Westland Row and Pearse Street to direct and inform commuters of the new measures in place. Michelle Mahon, from Glasnevin, drives along the route 'every day' to drop her children to school. She said the changes have made her journey 'a lot longer'. 'I'd say it adds a good 20 minutes on, which feels like a lot to me because I have a busy household,' she said. [ Dublin bus routes move, paving way for traffic-free Parliament Street Opens in new window ] 'Unfortunately, I'm going right [at the junction] and I'm not sure yet which way I get over the quays. I come from Glasnevin, but I drive the kids to school on the south side,' she said. Despite the personal inconvenience, Ms Mahon said the change is 'fantastic' in that 'it brings less traffic into the city'. She heard about the plans 'five or six months ago' and knew it was coming soon. Sam Downes (25), a barista at Cloud Picker on Pearse Street, said he has seen less traffic on the street since the changes came into force. 'From Monday morning it was noticeably quieter, and the same this morning.' Like Ms Mahon, Mr Downes agreed the development 'has been signposted pretty well for the last month or so. I don't think there's really been that much confusion,' he said. Effy Lim (26), an employee of OffBeat Donuts at Pearse Station on Westland Row, said the business was 'informed a month or two ago' about the changes. Asked whether the new restrictions have had any effect on work operations, Ms Lim said the shop's delivery driver now has to take a different route. 'Our driver actually has to pass through here. In general, I don't think it's really bothering us because he can go another way around. It's just a little bit more time-consuming.' She said she has noticed an improvement in traffic on Pearse Street. 'Usually there's a long queue here. The bus lane especially. The bus is usually outside stuck here, but it's getting better now. It's smoother because they're the only ones who can use this lane.' A Dublin Bus spokesman said: 'This change will assist the flow of buses through Westland Row, getting more of our customers to their destination faster. [ Olivia Kelly: Dublin's biggest traffic transformation since bus lanes bypasses the usual gridlock Opens in new window ] 'Traffic congestion represents the biggest challenge to Dublin Bus providing an efficient and reliable service. The provision of quality bus corridors that give priority to our buses will allow us to move a greater number of customers more efficiently.' The new traffic regulations will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Parliament Street is set to become a traffic-free zone from 11am daily under the next phase of the plan this summer. The southside street faces Capel Street, which is already pedestrianised, on the north side of the river.
Euronews
18-03-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Human nurses are pushing back as AI reshapes hospital care
Several artificial intelligence (AI) companies are offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants. Hospitals say AI is helping their nurses work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing. But nursing unions argue that this poorly understood technology is overriding nurses' expertise and degrading the quality of care patients receive. "Hospitals have been waiting for the moment when they have something that appears to have enough legitimacy to replace nurses," said Michelle Mahon of National Nurses United. "The entire ecosystem is designed to automate, de-skill and ultimately replace caregivers". Mahon's group, the largest nursing union in the United States, has helped organise more than 20 demonstrations at hospitals across the country, pushing for the right to have a say in how AI can be used and protection from discipline if nurses decide to disregard automated advice. Hippocratic AI initially promoted a rate of $9 (€8.2) an hour for its AI assistants, compared with about $40 (€36.7) an hour for a registered nurse. It has since dropped that language, instead touting its services and seeking to assure customers that the AI has been carefully tested. The company did not grant requests for an interview. Hospitals have been experimenting for years with technology designed to improve care and streamline costs, including sensors, microphones, and motion-sensing cameras. Now that data is being linked with electronic medical records and analysed in an effort to predict medical problems and direct nurses' care – sometimes before they've evaluated the patient themselves. Adam Hart was working in the emergency room at Dignity Health in Henderson, Nevada, when the hospital's computer system flagged a newly arrived patient for sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection. Under the hospital's protocol, he was supposed to immediately administer a large dose of IV fluids. But after further examination, Hart determined that he was treating a dialysis patient, or someone with kidney failure. Such patients have to be carefully managed to avoid overloading their kidneys with fluid. Hart raised his concern with the supervising nurse but was told to just follow the standard protocol. Only after a nearby physician intervened did the patient instead begin to receive a slow infusion of IV fluids. "You need to keep your thinking cap on - that's why you're being paid as a nurse," Hart said. "Turning over our thought processes to these devices is reckless and dangerous". Hart and other nurses say they understand the goal of AI: to make it easier for nurses to monitor multiple patients and quickly respond to problems. But the reality is often a barrage of false alarms, sometimes erroneously flagging basic bodily functions – such as a patient having a bowel movement – as an emergency. Even the most sophisticated technology will miss signs that nurses routinely pick up on, such as facial expressions and odors, notes Michelle Collins, dean of Loyola University's College of Nursing. But people aren't perfect either. "It would be foolish to turn our back on this completely," Collins said. 'We should embrace what it can do to augment our care, but we should also be careful it doesn't replace the human element". More than 100,000 nurses left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to one estimate, the biggest staffing drop in 40 years. As the US population ages and nurses retire, the US government estimates there will be more than 190,000 new openings for nurses every year through 2032. Faced with this trend, hospital administrators see AI filling a vital role: not taking over care, but helping nurses and doctors gather information and communicate with patients. At the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in Little Rock, staffers need to make hundreds of calls every week to prepare patients for surgery. Nurses confirm information about prescriptions, heart conditions and other issues, like sleep apnea, that must be carefully reviewed before anesthesia. The problem: many patients only answer their phones in the evening, usually between dinner and their children's bedtime. Since January, the hospital has used an AI assistant from Qventus to contact patients and health providers, send and receive medical records and summarise their contents for human staffers. Qventus says 115 hospitals are using its technology, which aims to boost hospital earnings through quicker surgical turnarounds, fewer cancellations, and reduced burnout. While companies like Qventus are providing an administrative service, other AI developers see a bigger role for their technology. Israeli startup Xoltar specialises in humanlike avatars that conduct video calls with patients. The company is working with the Mayo Clinic on an AI assistant that teaches patients cognitive techniques for managing chronic pain. The company is also developing an avatar to help smokers quit. Nursing experts who study AI say such programmes may work for people who are relatively healthy and proactive about their care. But that's not most people in the health system. "It's the very sick who are taking up the bulk of health care in the US and whether or not chatbots are positioned for those folks is something we really have to consider," said Roschelle Fritz of the University of California Davis School of Nursing. Nearly one in 10 people are uncertain about whether or not they have long COVID, according to a new analysis of survey data that comes five years after the pandemic forced people across the globe to stay at home to prevent the virus' spread. Based on a National Health Service (NHS) England survey of more than 750,000 people, the new study also shows that almost one in 20 people have long COVID, which is the name for lasting symptoms of COVID-19. The chronic post-viral condition includes symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, shortness of breath, and muscle pain. Those suffering from the condition have said it can lead to severe exhaustion and prevent them from leading normal lives. The study, which was published on Tuesday in the journal Health Expectations, also found that those living in deprived areas were more likely to have long COVID. Experts say the study's findings are in line with other prevalence estimates and added that there could be multiple factors to explain why people are unsure if they have the condition. 'If you are not told that you have long COVID, so if you don't have a clinical diagnosis… then you're likely to be unsure whether it is long COVID,' Nisreen Alwan, a professor of public health at the University of Southampton in the UK and one of the study's authors, told Euronews Health. A person saying their health deteriorated after COVID-19, which some may regard as a mild infection, 'is quite heavily stigmatised,' Alwan added, which may prevent people from talking about it or seeking diagnosis or support. The authors found that the prevalence of long COVID significantly increased with deprivation. Several groups were more likely to report having long COVID, including women, parents or carers, people who were gay, lesbian, or bisexual, as well as certain ethnic groups such as White Gypsy and Irish Traveller or those with mixed or multiple ethnic groups, and people with a long-term condition. Meanwhile, young people, men, those who were heterosexual or non‐binary, and people from other White, Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Black, or Arab backgrounds, as well as former and current smokers, were more likely to be unsure about whether they had long COVID, the authors said. 'Five years into this discussion, it [has] never been more important to have strong estimates of caseload and patient burden to support discussions on healthcare planning and medical research needs,' said Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London who was not involved in the new study. He added in an email to Euronews Health that 'there's less and less tolerance for any further discussion of COVID-19 legacies and healthcare needs and a call to 'just move on''. A study published in Nature Medicine in 2024 estimated that 400 million people have long COVID globally, with an annual economic impact equivalent to $1 trillion (€954.4 billion). 'Long COVID patient groups around the world are (quite rightly) feeling desperate and let down. Many have lost their old jobs and their old lives,' Altmann said, adding that many longer cases of long COVID are in people who were unable to self-isolate in the early days of the pandemic. Researchers said the findings show a need for more awareness about the condition among the public and health workers as well as a need for better distribution of diagnosis, treatment, and support. 'Long COVID widens health inequalities, and we need to be very sensitive about that and address how we support people who are more disadvantaged if they have long COVID,' said Alwan, including encouraging them to access support and health services.
The Hill
16-03-2025
- Health
- The Hill
As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back
The next time you're due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have. With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease — like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole. That's because Ana isn't human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants. It's the most visible sign of AI's inroads into health care, where hundreds of hospitals are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to monitor patients' vital signs, flag emergency situations and trigger step-by-step action plans for care — jobs that were all previously handled by nurses and other health professionals. Hospitals say AI is helping their nurses work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing. But nursing unions argue that this poorly understood technology is overriding nurses' expertise and degrading the quality of care patients receive. 'Hospitals have been waiting for the moment when they have something that appears to have enough legitimacy to replace nurses,' said Michelle Mahon of National Nurses United. 'The entire ecosystem is designed to automate, de-skill and ultimately replace caregivers.' Mahon's group, the largest nursing union in the U.S., has helped organize more than 20 demonstrations at hospitals across the country, pushing for the right to have say in how AI can be used — and protection from discipline if nurses decide to disregard automated advice. The group raised new alarms in January when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the incoming health secretary, suggested AI nurses 'as good as any doctor' could help deliver care in rural areas. On Friday, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who's been nominated to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, said he believes AI can 'liberate doctors and nurses from all the paperwork.' Hippocratic AI initially promoted a rate of $9 an hour for its AI assistants, compared with about $40 an hour for a registered nurse. It has since dropped that language, instead touting its services and seeking to assure customers that they have been carefully tested. The company did not grant requests for an interview. AI in the hospital can generate false alarms and dangerous advice Hospitals have been experimenting for years with technology designed to improve care and streamline costs, including sensors, microphones and motion-sensing cameras. Now that data is being linked with electronic medical records and analyzed in an effort to predict medical problems and direct nurses' care — sometimes before they've evaluated the patient themselves. Adam Hart was working in the emergency room at Dignity Health in Henderson, Nevada, when the hospital's computer system flagged a newly arrived patient for sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection. Under the hospital's protocol, he was supposed to immediately administer a large dose of IV fluids. But after further examination, Hart determined that he was treating a dialysis patient, or someone with kidney failure. Such patients have to be carefully managed to avoid overloading their kidneys with fluid. Hart raised his concern with the supervising nurse but was told to just follow the standard protocol. Only after a nearby physician intervened did the patient instead begin to receive a slow infusion of IV fluids. 'You need to keep your thinking cap on— that's why you're being paid as a nurse,' Hart said. 'Turning over our thought processes to these devices is reckless and dangerous.' Hart and other nurses say they understand the goal of AI: to make it easier for nurses to monitor multiple patients and quickly respond to problems. But the reality is often a barrage of false alarms, sometimes erroneously flagging basic bodily functions — such as a patient having a bowel movement — as an emergency. 'You're trying to focus on your work but then you're getting all these distracting alerts that may or may not mean something,' said Melissa Beebe, a cancer nurse at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. 'It's hard to even tell when it's accurate and when it's not because there are so many false alarms.' Can AI help in the hospital? Even the most sophisticated technology will miss signs that nurses routinely pick up on, such as facial expressions and odors, notes Michelle Collins, dean of Loyola University's College of Nursing. But people aren't perfect either. 'It would be foolish to turn our back on this completely,' Collins said. 'We should embrace what it can do to augment our care, but we should also be careful it doesn't replace the human element.' More than 100,000 nurses left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to one estimate, the biggest staffing drop in 40 years. As the U.S. population ages and nurses retire, the U.S. government estimates there will be more than 190,000 new openings for nurses every year through 2032. Faced with this trend, hospital administrators see AI filling a vital role: not taking over care, but helping nurses and doctors gather information and communicate with patients. 'Sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes they're not' At the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in Little Rock, staffers need to make hundreds of calls every week to prepare patients for surgery. Nurses confirm information about prescriptions, heart conditions and other issues — like sleep apnea — that must be carefully reviewed before anesthesia. The problem: many patients only answer their phones in the evening, usually between dinner and their children's bedtime. 'So what we need to do is find a way to call several hundred people in a 120-minute window — but I really don't want to pay my staff overtime to do so,' said Dr. Joseph Sanford, who oversees the center's health IT. Since January, the hospital has used an AI assistant from Qventus to contact patients and health providers, send and receive medical records and summarize their contents for human staffers. Qventus says 115 hospitals are using its technology, which aims to boost hospital earnings through quicker surgical turnarounds, fewer cancellations and reduced burnout. Each call begins with the program identifying itself as an AI assistant. 'We always want to be fully transparent with our patients that sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes they're not,' Sanford said. While companies like Qventus are providing an administrative service, other AI developers see a bigger role for their technology. Israeli startup Xoltar specializes in humanlike avatars that conduct video calls with patients. The company is working with the Mayo Clinic on an AI assistant that teaches patients cognitive techniques for managing chronic pain. The company is also developing an avatar to help smokers quit. In early testing, patients spend about 14 minutes talking to the program, which can pickup on facial expressions, body language and other cues, according to Xoltar. Nursing experts who study AI say such programs may work for people who are relatively healthy and proactive about their care. But that's not most people in the health system. 'It's the very sick who are taking up the bulk of health care in the U.S. and whether or not chatbots are positioned for those folks is something we really have to consider,' said Roschelle Fritz of the University of California Davis School of Nursing. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The Independent
16-03-2025
- Health
- The Independent
AI nurses: Staffing solution for hospitals or a threat to quality care?
The next time you're due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have. With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease — like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole. That's because Ana isn't human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants. It's the most visible sign of AI's inroads into health care, where hundreds of hospitals are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to monitor patients' vital signs, flag emergency situations and trigger step-by-step action plans for care — jobs that were all previously handled by nurses and other health professionals. Hospitals say AI is helping their nurses work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing. But nursing unions argue that this poorly understood technology is overriding nurses' expertise and degrading the quality of care patients receive. 'Hospitals have been waiting for the moment when they have something that appears to have enough legitimacy to replace nurses,' said Michelle Mahon of National Nurses United. 'The entire ecosystem is designed to automate, de-skill and ultimately replace caregivers.' Mahon's group, the largest nursing union in the U.S., has helped organize more than 20 demonstrations at hospitals across the country, pushing for the right to have say in how AI can be used — and protection from discipline if they decide to disregard automated advice. The group raised new alarms in January when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the incoming health secretary, suggested AI nurses 'as good as any doctor' could help deliver care in rural areas. On Friday, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who's been nominated to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, said he believes AI can 'liberate doctors and nurses from all the paperwork.' Hippocratic AI initially promoted a rate of $9 an hour for its AI assistants, compared with about $40 an hour for a registered nurse. It has since dropped that language, instead touting its services and seeking to assure customers that they have been carefully tested. The company did not grant requests for an interview. AI in the hospital can generate false alarms and dangerous advice Hospitals have been experimenting for years with technology designed to improve care and streamline costs, including sensors, microphones and motion-sensing cameras. Now that data is being linked with electronic medical records and analyzed in an effort to predict medical problems and direct nurses' care — sometimes before they've evaluated the patient themselves. Adam Hart was working in the emergency room at Dignity Health in Henderson, Nevada, when the hospital's computer system flagged a newly arrived patient for sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection. Under the hospital's protocol, he was supposed to immediately administer a large dose of IV fluids. But after further examination, Hart determined that he was treating a dialysis patient, or someone with kidney failure. Such patients have to be carefully managed to avoid overloading their kidneys with fluid. Hart raised his concern with the supervising nurse but was told to just follow the standard protocol. Only after a nearby physician intervened did the patient instead begin to receive a slow infusion of IV fluids. 'You need to keep your thinking cap on— that's why you're being paid as a nurse,' Hart said. 'Turning over our thought processes to these devices is reckless and dangerous.' Hart and other nurses say they understand the goal of AI: to make it easier for nurses to monitor multiple patients and quickly respond to problems. But the reality is often a barrage of false alarms, sometimes erroneously flagging basic bodily functions — such as a patient having a bowel movement — as an emergency. 'You're trying to focus on your work but then you're getting all these distracting alerts that may or may not mean something,' said Melissa Beebe, a cancer nurse at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. 'It's hard to even tell when it's accurate and when it's not because there are so many false alarms.' Can AI help in the hospital? Even the most sophisticated technology will miss will miss signs that nurses routinely pick up on, such as facial expressions and odors, notes Michelle Collins, dean of Loyola University's College of Nursing. But people aren't perfect either. 'It would be foolish to turn our back on this completely,' Collins said. 'We should embrace what it can do to augment our care, but we should also be careful it doesn't replace the human element.' More than 100,000 nurses left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to one estimate, the biggest staffing drop in 40 years. As the U.S. population ages and nurses retire, the U.S. government estimates there will be more than 190,000 new openings for nurses every year through 2032. Faced with this trend, hospital administrators see AI filling a vital role: not taking over care, but helping nurses and doctors gather information and communicate with patients. 'Sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes they're not' At the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in Little Rock, staffers need to make hundreds of calls every week to prepare patients for surgery. Nurses confirm information about prescriptions, heart conditions and other issues — like sleep apnea — that must be carefully reviewed before anesthesia. The problem: many patients only answer their phones in the evening, usually between dinner and their children's bedtime. 'So what we need to do is find a way to call several hundred people in a 120-minute window -- but I really don't want to pay my staff overtime to do so,' said Dr. Joseph Sanford, who oversees the center's health IT. Since January, the hospital has used an AI assistant from Qventus to contact patients and health providers, send and receive medical records and summarize their contents for human staffers. Qventus says 115 hospitals are using its technology, which aims to boost hospital earnings through quicker surgical turnarounds, fewer cancellations and reduced burnout. Each call begins with the program identifying itself as an AI assistant. 'We always want to be fully transparent with our patients that sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes they're not,' Sanford said. While companies like Qventus are providing an administrative service, other AI developers see a bigger role for their technology. Israeli startup Xoltar specializes in humanlike avatars that conduct video calls with patients. The company is working with the Mayo Clinic on an AI assistant that teaches patients cognitive techniques for managing chronic pain. The company is also developing an avatar to help smokers quit. In early testing, patients have spent about 14 minutes talking to the program, which can pickup on facial expressions, body language and other cues, according to Xoltar. Nursing experts who study AI say such programs may work for people who are relatively healthy and proactive about their care. But that's not most people in the health system. 'It's the very sick who are taking up the bulk of health care in the U.S. and whether or not chatbots are positioned for those folks is something we really have to consider,' said Roschelle Fritz of the University of California Davis School of Nursing. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
AI nurses: Staffing solution for hospitals or a threat to quality care?
The next time you're due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have. With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease — like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole. That's because Ana isn't human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants. It's the most visible sign of AI's inroads into health care, where hundreds of hospitals are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to monitor patients' vital signs, flag emergency situations and trigger step-by-step action plans for care — jobs that were all previously handled by nurses and other health professionals. Hospitals say AI is helping their nurses work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing. But nursing unions argue that this poorly understood technology is overriding nurses' expertise and degrading the quality of care patients receive. 'Hospitals have been waiting for the moment when they have something that appears to have enough legitimacy to replace nurses,' said Michelle Mahon of National Nurses United. 'The entire ecosystem is designed to automate, de-skill and ultimately replace caregivers.' Mahon's group, the largest nursing union in the U.S., has helped organize more than 20 demonstrations at hospitals across the country, pushing for the right to have say in how AI can be used — and protection from discipline if they decide to disregard automated advice. The group raised new alarms in January when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the incoming health secretary, suggested AI nurses 'as good as any doctor' could help deliver care in rural areas. On Friday, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who's been nominated to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, said he believes AI can 'liberate doctors and nurses from all the paperwork.' Hippocratic AI initially promoted a rate of $9 an hour for its AI assistants, compared with about $40 an hour for a registered nurse. It has since dropped that language, instead touting its services and seeking to assure customers that they have been carefully tested. The company did not grant requests for an interview. AI in the hospital can generate false alarms and dangerous advice Hospitals have been experimenting for years with technology designed to improve care and streamline costs, including sensors, microphones and motion-sensing cameras. Now that data is being linked with electronic medical records and analyzed in an effort to predict medical problems and direct nurses' care — sometimes before they've evaluated the patient themselves. Adam Hart was working in the emergency room at Dignity Health in Henderson, Nevada, when the hospital's computer system flagged a newly arrived patient for sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection. Under the hospital's protocol, he was supposed to immediately administer a large dose of IV fluids. But after further examination, Hart determined that he was treating a dialysis patient, or someone with kidney failure. Such patients have to be carefully managed to avoid overloading their kidneys with fluid. Hart raised his concern with the supervising nurse but was told to just follow the standard protocol. Only after a nearby physician intervened did the patient instead begin to receive a slow infusion of IV fluids. 'You need to keep your thinking cap on— that's why you're being paid as a nurse,' Hart said. 'Turning over our thought processes to these devices is reckless and dangerous.' Hart and other nurses say they understand the goal of AI: to make it easier for nurses to monitor multiple patients and quickly respond to problems. But the reality is often a barrage of false alarms, sometimes erroneously flagging basic bodily functions — such as a patient having a bowel movement — as an emergency. 'You're trying to focus on your work but then you're getting all these distracting alerts that may or may not mean something,' said Melissa Beebe, a cancer nurse at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. 'It's hard to even tell when it's accurate and when it's not because there are so many false alarms.' Can AI help in the hospital? Even the most sophisticated technology will miss will miss signs that nurses routinely pick up on, such as facial expressions and odors, notes Michelle Collins, dean of Loyola University's College of Nursing. But people aren't perfect either. 'It would be foolish to turn our back on this completely,' Collins said. 'We should embrace what it can do to augment our care, but we should also be careful it doesn't replace the human element.' More than 100,000 nurses left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to one estimate, the biggest staffing drop in 40 years. As the U.S. population ages and nurses retire, the U.S. government estimates there will be more than 190,000 new openings for nurses every year through 2032. Faced with this trend, hospital administrators see AI filling a vital role: not taking over care, but helping nurses and doctors gather information and communicate with patients. 'Sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes they're not' At the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in Little Rock, staffers need to make hundreds of calls every week to prepare patients for surgery. Nurses confirm information about prescriptions, heart conditions and other issues — like sleep apnea — that must be carefully reviewed before anesthesia. The problem: many patients only answer their phones in the evening, usually between dinner and their children's bedtime. 'So what we need to do is find a way to call several hundred people in a 120-minute window -- but I really don't want to pay my staff overtime to do so,' said Dr. Joseph Sanford, who oversees the center's health IT. Since January, the hospital has used an AI assistant from Qventus to contact patients and health providers, send and receive medical records and summarize their contents for human staffers. Qventus says 115 hospitals are using its technology, which aims to boost hospital earnings through quicker surgical turnarounds, fewer cancellations and reduced burnout. Each call begins with the program identifying itself as an AI assistant. 'We always want to be fully transparent with our patients that sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes they're not,' Sanford said. While companies like Qventus are providing an administrative service, other AI developers see a bigger role for their technology. Israeli startup Xoltar specializes in humanlike avatars that conduct video calls with patients. The company is working with the Mayo Clinic on an AI assistant that teaches patients cognitive techniques for managing chronic pain. The company is also developing an avatar to help smokers quit. In early testing, patients have spent about 14 minutes talking to the program, which can pickup on facial expressions, body language and other cues, according to Xoltar. Nursing experts who study AI say such programs may work for people who are relatively healthy and proactive about their care. But that's not most people in the health system. 'It's the very sick who are taking up the bulk of health care in the U.S. and whether or not chatbots are positioned for those folks is something we really have to consider,' said Roschelle Fritz of the University of California Davis School of Nursing. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
