Nurses at the largest US hospital chain say Palantir-built scheduling software keeps getting it wrong

A WIRED investigation reports that Timpani, an AI scheduling tool HCA Healthcare co-developed with Palantir, has been rolled out to roughly 130 of the chain's 190 locations. Nurses at multiple sites say it routinely ignores requested days off and produces understaffed, imbalanced shifts.

HCA's own figures show Timpani schedules nurses onto just 1 percent of their requested days off, but Missouri nurse Lee Barker says being assigned on a day off was previously unheard of at their facility. An HCA spokesperson says nursing leaders, not the software, make final scheduling decisions, and that the company keeps improving the tool from nurse feedback.

In July, former HCA data science manager Angelique Russell sued the company, alleging she was fired in retaliation for raising concerns about Timpani and that schedule data was routinely deleted, preventing audits; HCA has not yet formally responded in court. Rayus Radiology, a large imaging chain using a tool also built on Palantir Foundry, saw scheduling errors this year that linked requests to the wrong patients; the company says technology supports rather than replaces human judgment.