HCA and Palantir's AI scheduling tool Timpani draws complaints from nurses

HCA, the largest U.S. hospital chain, has deployed Timpani, an AI scheduling tool developed with Palantir, in 130 of its approximately 190 facilities since 2023. Multiple nurses say it frequently ignores scheduling preferences, schedules too few or under-experienced nurses on days like Sundays, leading to understaffing and fatigue. HCA data shows Timpani schedules only 1% of nurse leave requests as workdays on average, but nurses say this almost never happened before. An HCA spokesperson said final scheduling decisions are made by nursing managers, not Timpani, and denied the tool reduces staffing at the expense of patient care.