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Episode #

50

Treat the Patient, Not the Alert: AI, Alert Fatigue, and Nursing Decision Support

AI can identify a patient at risk. But what happens when the nurse receiving the alert is already caring for another patient?

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As hospitals continue adopting AI-powered clinical decision support tools, nursing leaders face a practical challenge: identifying risk is only part of the equation. Acting on it requires people, workflows, communication, and clinical judgment.

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In this episode of Beyond the Blueprint, Gregg Malkary is joined by Daniel Gracie, Carolyn S. Harmon, and Troy Seagondollar to explore how AI-driven alerts intersect with the realities of nursing practice. The conversation examines alert fatigue, cognitive overload, accountability, workflow design, and the limits of technology when resources and staffing remain constrained.

The discussion also explores why AI should support -- not replace -- clinical judgment, how poorly designed workflows can undermine even the most advanced tools, and what healthcare organizations should consider before introducing new AI-driven alerts into patient care environments.

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Whether you're a nursing leader, informatics professional, healthcare executive, or technology innovator, this conversation offers a grounded look at what it takes to translate AI insights into meaningful action at the bedside.

EPISODE GUESTS

Carolyn S. Harmon

University of South Carolina

Professor/Director of Healthcare Leadership and Nursing Informatics

Dr. Carolyn S. Harmon, PhD, DNP, RN, NI-BC, CSSGB, FAAN, is a nationally recognized nursing leader, researcher, and academic executive serving as a Professor and the Director of Healthcare Leadership and Nursing Informatics Programs at the University of South Carolina College of Nursing. A prominent voice in digital health, her extensive research focuses on the intersection of healthcare technology, electronic health record (EHR) documentation burden, nursing cognitive load, and clinician well-being. Dr. Harmon is a Past President of the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA) and leads the Artificial Intelligence Subgroup of the National Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science Learning Collaborative. At her university, she also serves as a Nurse Scientist with the ACORN Center, a Propel AI Scholar, and a Provost’s AI Teaching Fellow, driving institutional innovation in AI-enabled, person-centered healthcare delivery. Board-certified in nursing informatics and a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) in 2025 for her contributions to transforming clinical environments. Dr. Harmon holds a PhD from the University of South Carolina, a DNP from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and an MSN from Queens University of Charlotte.

Daniel Gracie

Medical University of South Carolina

Epic Platform Analytics Manager

Dr. Daniel P. Gracie, DNP, RN-BC, is a nursing informatics leader and academic who serves as the Senior Clinical Analyst Team Leader at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) within the Office of the Chief Information Officer. In this capacity, he directs healthcare information technology initiatives, specializing in electronic medical record (EMR) implementations, workflow analysis, and the clinical integration of patient education platforms. Backed by a strong clinical foundation in pediatric intensive care, Dr. Gracie is a prominent national figure in digital health, serving as a past President and Board Member of the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA). In addition to his enterprise leadership at MUSC, he is a faculty member at Walden University’s College of Nursing, a published expert on clinical data visualization and patient engagement frameworks, and holds both his Master of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees from MUSC.

Troy Seagondollar

Kaiser Permanente

Certified Informatics Nurse Specialist

M. Troy Seagondollar, MSN, RN, NI-BC, is an accomplished nursing informatics leader, educator, and healthcare IT strategist who specializes in aligning electronic health record (EHR) workflows with the practical realities of bedside clinical practice. He serves as the Regional Nurse Technology Liaison and Nurse Educator at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, California, and acts as an advisor for the Spyglass Consulting Group. Throughout his extensive clinical career—which includes serving as a registered nurse and emergency department subject matter expert at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center—Seagondollar has championed giving frontline clinicians a direct voice in technology design, notably optimizing Kaiser's KP HealthConnect system through unique labor-management partnership assignments. A prominent voice within the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA), he regularly presents on the national scope, standards, and core competencies of informatics nursing, and actively contributes to industry panels addressing modern challenges like the rollout of AI-driven clinical decision support tools and the mitigation of nurse alert fatigue.
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