HCA Nurses Say Palantir Tool at 130 Hospitals Undercuts Care as 1% Work Red-Day Shifts
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Oct 2
HCA Nurses Say Palantir Tool at 130 Hospitals Undercuts Care as 1% Work Red-Day Shifts
1 articles · Updated · WIRED · Oct 2
Summary
Five HCA nurses told WIRED that Timpani, the Palantir-built scheduling system, leaves units understaffed or short on veteran staff, forcing exhausted nurses to cover back-to-back shifts and raising patient-care risks.
At roughly 130 of HCA’s 190 hospitals since 2023, the tool has often overridden preferences on spacing shifts, nights, weekends and days off; HCA says nursing leaders make final decisions and that Timpani is being improved.
HCA says Timpani schedules nurses on requested days off just 1% of the time, but nurses say red-day assignments were previously rare and now trigger appeals, shift swaps and more callouts.
The complaints add to scrutiny from a July retaliation lawsuit by a former HCA data science manager, who alleged data used by Timpani was routinely deleted, hindering audits of the system.
The dispute lands as Palantir’s healthcare push accelerates—sales are nearing $2 billion a quarter—even as other providers and activists question the safety, oversight and privacy of its tools.