{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/healthcare-support-workers-all-other/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Healthcare Support Workers, All Other", "soc_code": "31-9099", "category": "Healthcare Support", "us_employment": 109740, "median_annual_wage": 48430 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 51, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 13, "embodiment": 17, "liability_shield": 4, "trust_premium": 11, "judgment_accountability": 6 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "At 13 the physical core — decontaminating and assembling instrument trays, transferring and positioning patients, prepping exam rooms, stocking crash carts — is not touchable by software, but the shift also contains genuinely automatable blocks: barcode supply reconciliation, sterilizer cycle logging, appointment reminders, and typing intake answers into the EHR, which is why it sits just below the resistant band rather than at 16+.", "embodiment": "17 reflects that the work happens in decontam rooms, dialysis bays, OR corridors and patient bedsides — wet floors, contaminated sharps, uncooperative or sedated bodies, equipment that has to be lifted and wheeled through crowded halls — an environment nobody has succeeded in structuring for a machine; it is short of 20 only because some sub-roles (optometric and podiatric assistants) work in calmer, more predictable clinic space.", "liability_shield": "4 is right because these titles need no state license: CBSPD or HSPA certification for sterile processing is employer-preferred and increasingly required by hospital policy, but it is not a statute, and when a tray comes back with bioburden or a patient is dropped, the liability lands on the hospital and the supervising RN or surgeon, not on a credential you personally hold.", "trust_premium": "11 sits mid-band because dialysis and patient care aides see the same patients three times a week for years and that continuity genuinely matters to compliance and comfort, but the assignment is made by the schedule, not by the patient asking for you — sterile processing and transport work is anonymous to the patient entirely.", "judgment_accountability": "6 matches the fact that nearly every consequential decision is written down somewhere — AAMI ST79 reprocessing steps, manufacturer IFUs, dialysis machine alarm protocols, two-person lift policies — and the standing instruction when something is off-protocol is to stop and escalate to the nurse rather than to decide." }, "rationale": "This is a residual bucket — sterile processing techs, dialysis and patient care aides, optometric and podiatric assistants, hospital transport and clinical support staff — so the modal worker spends most of the shift physically in a clinical space handling instruments, equipment, and patients. That embodiment is the real moat: robotics cannot yet strip a bed, position a patient, or reprocess a tray in a crowded OR corridor. What is exposed is the paperwork layer around it: intake forms, supply logs, scheduling, insurance data entry, and standard-protocol documentation, plus the fact that almost none of these roles carry a personal license or signature liability.", "outlook": "Employment holds or grows because the physical work is stubborn and demographics push demand, but the clerical half of these jobs thins out and the durable pay sits in the certified technical roles.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Sterile processing is the one sub-occupation with a live credentialing route: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Tennessee already statutorily require CRCST/HSPA certification for central service techs, and HSPA lobbies state-by-state for more. If additional states mandate certification AND facility accreditation (AAMI ST79 / Joint Commission) requires a named certified tech to sign each load-release record with personal accountability for a failed biological indicator, the shield rises for that slice. Dialysis techs have a parallel path via CMS ESRD Conditions for Coverage requiring state-approved certification.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "If load-release, instrument-defect rejection, or dialysis pre-treatment patient assessment (vitals, access-site condition, deciding to escalate to the RN before cannulation) becomes a documented, individually attributed stop-the-line authority under facility policy or a CMS survey deficiency finding, the role owns a consequential ambiguous call rather than executing a checklist.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Genuine two-tier structure here: if intake forms, supply logs, scheduling and insurance data entry are absorbed by ambient documentation tools, the residual shift is instrument inspection under magnification, decontamination judgment on unfamiliar loaner trays, patient positioning and de-escalation — the tier AI cannot reach. Task-mix shift, no law needed, but it also shrinks headcount while raising per-worker resistance.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "Little headroom — already 17. Rises marginally only if surgical volume shifts toward robotic and loaner-heavy cases requiring more complex manual reprocessing of delicate, non-standard instrument sets.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 1 } ], "ceiling_note": "Ceiling is structural: this is a residual SOC bucket, so any lever only reaches one sub-occupation at a time. Sterile processing and dialysis have real credentialing momentum; hospital transport and specialty-office assistants have essentially none and would stay near current scores. The bucket average cannot move much above the mid-60s even if every plausible lever fires, and the biggest realistic threat is not robotics but staffing-ratio compression as the documentation tier disappears." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 92030, "wage": 37220 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 88990, "wage": 37830 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 93270, "wage": 38460 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 96720, "wage": 39530 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 108410, "wage": 37740 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 107170, "wage": 40420 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 102230, "wage": 44490 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 103650, "wage": 46050 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 109740, "wage": 48430 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 19.2, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "exercise-trainers-and-group-fitness-instructors", "title": "Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 61, "median_wage": 47160, "overlap": 54, "skills_to_close": [ "Instructing", "Operations Analysis", "Service Orientation" ] }, { "slug": "occupational-therapy-assistants", "title": "Occupational Therapy Assistants", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 68, "median_wage": 72300, "overlap": 53, "skills_to_close": [ "Service Orientation", "Negotiation", "Time Management", "Social Perceptiveness" ] }, { "slug": "physical-therapist-assistants", "title": "Physical Therapist Assistants", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 79, "median_wage": 68380, "overlap": 52, "skills_to_close": [ "Operations Analysis", "Science", "Monitoring", "Persuasion" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }