NYC nurses claim hospitals quietly rolled out AI tech that’s threatening jobs — and patients’ safety
New York nurses are rallying against the city’s hospital system’s quiet rollout of artificial‑intelligence tools, arguing that they pose real threats to both job security and patient safety.
During a recent “State of Nursing” Committee on Hospitals meeting, several leaders highlighted that hospital administrators have already poured hundreds of millions into cutting‑edge language models—yet frontline staff were largely left out of the planning process. “What do we do? What if the machines stop working? How do we go back to monitor that patient?” Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, fire‑faced the issue on November 18.
Hagans, who has spent three decades at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, noted that nurses should have a voice in decisions that directly influence how care is delivered at the bedside. Her frustration grew after an unsettling incident at Maimonides, where medical devices tied to patients’ skulls appeared in the ICU without any forewarning, training, or established protocols from a pharmaceutical company. Such events underscored her point that “the hospitals want to roll out everything, but we’re not part of the decision making, and we need to be part of the decision making, because it’s affecting how we care for our patients.”
At the other end of the city, Denash Forbes—longtime nurse and director at large for NYSNA—criticized Mount Sinai West’s enormous investment in healthcare AI. “We’re watching the hospital system proudly showcase ‘Sofiya,’ the newest AI assistant in the cardiac cath lab. Nurses still have to double‑check her output for errors,” Forbes said. She accused the institution of turning AI into a cost‑saving measure that effectively replaces human expertise with scripted algorithms.
Mount Sinai’s chief digital transformation officer, Robbie Freeman, defended the initiative as a means to “leverage AI as a supportive tool to enhance clinical decision‑making—not to replace it.” Forbes, however, warned that “when hospitals try to cut corners like this to save patient care, mistakes are made, biases are magnified, and more work is often created down the line.”
The debate has prompted nursing leaders to push for stricter safety guidelines in their latest contract negotiations. Hagans made it clear that AI should never replace bedside caregivers: “Real nurses are needed in real time at the bedside to care for our patients.”
Even elected officials with nursing backgrounds are voicing concerns. Brooklyn councilwoman Mercedes Narcisse—who is also a registered nurse—told interviewers, “All jokes aside, I don’t want no AI or robotic person to take care of me.”
As AI use spreads across New York City hospitals, the trend is reflected nationwide. A recent survey found that one in three Americans use AI to manage aspects of their health, although incidents of flawed medical advice from popular platforms have forced some patients into emergency rooms.
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