[14]

I would love to learn the cost of the AI versus how many new workers they could afford to hire and get more calls done. But I assume the end goal will be full replacement of human workers once the AI has had enough time to learn the job.

[caturopath]

The article doesn't seem to be about replacing nurses staffing their phones with AI. It seems to be about making sure the care they're providing is what the company wants.

[BeetleB]

The AI is a lot cheaper. Kaiser nurses are amongst the highest paid in the nation.

[saltcured]

Now let's talk about how AI could replace Kaiser middle management and streamline bureaucracy to preserve more budget for doctors and nurses...

[joe_the_user]

People enjoy saying "AI can replace middle management" as a comeuppance but it's not what people think. In many ways, AI is primarily serving as middle management, yes. But what happens is that instead of one manager engaging in petty surveillance, harassment and browbeating to increase work intensity, you have ten clones of the manager doing the same thing. That's not the "woo hoo, automated middle management!" you were looking for.

[saltcured]

Understood and agreed. I admit I was feeling a bit pithy with that comment.

I shouldn't really have referenced "replace" at all, but rather "optimize". And not targeting middle management but the whole non-medical structure above. This is where I think most of the waste in our modern US medical system lives.

But I understand it is still mostly a half-baked concept. We'd need a revolution far outside of just some management system. I believe it's the whole enclosing system that is rotten and driving medical costs away from the actual encounter costs. Profiteering, risk management, regulatory capture, etc.

I woudl argue there was a point, long ago, where these things have taken on a life of their own and no longer serve the need of improving care outcomes and the actual medical cost-benefit tradeoff we should be optimizing in a just and caring society.

[apercu]

Subsidized Gen AI maybe.

Also, California has a high cost of living.

[indoorfish]

How dare the people who take of the sick and dying be paid well. Unacceptable waste that must be optimized!

We're liberating them from work so they can focus on what matters