Behavioral health nursing has never been more challenging. With staffing stretched thin and over 90% of behavioral health workers reporting burnout, frontline caregivers are under enormous pressure to balance patient safety with limited resources. Critical risk signals can be missed when teams are overwhelmed with data but short on time to analyze it effectively.
That's why we're excited to introduce NORA (Nurse Operations Research Assistant), a first-of-its-kind AI agent now integrated into our Acuity INSIGHT platform. NORA serves as a 24/7 operations research assistant, designed specifically to support nurse managers and clinical teams with real-time, predictive insights through a simple conversational interface. NORA transforms our Behavioral Health Intelligence Operations (BHOI) platform into a true clinical partner, putting our standardized acuity insights and predictive intelligence directly into the hands of nurses who need it most through simple, natural conversation.
How NORA Works
NORA analyzes multiple risk factors including suicide attempt history, severe mental health diagnoses, adjustment difficulties, and Behavioral Health Acuity Index (BHAI) scores to predict when patients are likely to move from lower to higher acuity levels. This proactive approach helps care teams intervene earlier and more effectively.
Key capabilities include:
Top 10 Patients at Risk: NORA identifies the patients requiring the most attention for each upcoming shift, helping nurses prioritize their care.
Immediate Action Alerts: The system flags sudden risk escalations, such as sharp score increases or emerging suicide risks, enabling clinical staff to respond without delay.
Suicidality Risk Reports: Dedicated reports highlight patients with persistent suicidal thoughts, recent score jumps, or other active risk indicators.
Flexible Data Review: Staff can quickly review patient data by unit and timeframe, allowing managers to focus on targeted insights for a specific shift, unit, or time period.
Transparency You Can Trust
Unlike black-box AI models, NORA explains the "why" behind every prediction. From comparing BHAI scores across dates to highlighting changes in behavior or clinical status, the assistant provides actionable intelligence that is both transparent and trustworthy.
"Transparency is critical in behavioral health, where decisions directly affect patient safety," noted one industry expert. "By showing not just the prediction but the reasoning behind it, this technology helps clinicians trust the insights and act with greater confidence."
A New Era of Behavioral Health Operations
By embedding NORA into Acuity INSIGHT, we're delivering a breakthrough in operations intelligence—a trusted AI agent that helps nurse managers and staff anticipate which patients will require more intensive care, identify rising suicide risks, and track changes in patient stability, all through simple conversation.
NORA represents our commitment to supporting the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to provide quality behavioral health care. By giving them the tools they need to work smarter, not harder, we're helping create a future where both patients and caregivers can thrive.
