Acuity Behavioral Health is a company that provides a Behavioral Health Intelligence Platform (BHOI), a clinical operations system that incorporates a comprehensive measurement of patient acuity with AI to enhance the care and safety of patients and staff within inpatient psychiatric settings. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Acuity Behavioral Health CEO Jim Szyperski to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Jim Szyperski’s Background
When asking Jim Szyperski about his background, he said:
“I’ve been in the technology world for over 40 years now, since the late 1970s. This is probably my sixth or seventh time serving as a founder, co-founder, or early-stage CEO. I entered behavioral healthcare about seven or eight years ago, largely for personal reasons. Like many others in this space, I have family members who have struggled with mental health challenges. It felt like something worth getting involved in.”
“I’ve worked in financial services, telecom, and utilities—all on the tech side—and thought, ‘How hard can behavioral health be?’ The answer is: much harder. It’s far more complex and layered than those other sectors, and it quickly became clear how far behind behavioral healthcare is compared to other areas of medicine. That’s where the opportunity lies; to close that gap and make a real impact.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Szyperski shared:
“The idea stemmed from a lack of consistent, accepted methods for measuring and managing inpatient behavioral health care. In most areas of healthcare, best practices and standards have evolved over time thanks to data and research. That hasn’t happened in behavioral health.”
“Originally, 11 large behavioral health systems came together and said, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’ They wanted a consistent approach and began researching how to standardize care management. That work began in 2018–2019 and became the foundation of our core technology.”
“The pandemic put the project on pause as health systems shifted focus, but it was revived in late 2022. I joined in early 2023 to help productize that early work and bring it to market. Importantly, this wasn’t a tech team building something in isolation. It was created by frontline experts who live this reality every day. Our job is to deliver that in a scalable, accessible way.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Szyperski reflected:
“What stands out most to me is working closely with the people doing this work every day, the nurses and staff in inpatient psychiatric units. They are, without exaggeration, heroic. They’re underpaid, understaffed, and overextended, and yet they bring empathy, grace, and resilience to one of the toughest jobs imaginable. Being that close to the frontline has been deeply inspiring. It’s unlike anything I’ve experienced in other sectors. Beyond the great internal team I work with, it’s the privilege of working with these caregivers who keep us all motivated.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Szyperski explained:
“We offer the first Behavioral Health Operations Intelligence (BHOI) platform, purpose-built to bring real-time measurement, AI-driven insight, and operational clarity to inpatient psychiatric care, a field that has long operated without standardized tools or consistent benchmarks. At the center of the platform is the Behavioral Health Acuity Index (BHAI), a clinically validated scoring model that objectively measures patient acuity based on observable behaviors, treatment engagement, and functional status. This replaces subjective gut-checks with data-backed classification that supports staffing decisions, care planning, and reimbursement.”
“Building on that foundation, we are introducing two AI-powered tools designed to move the field from retrospective analytics to forward-looking decision support:
— Predicted Intervention Level (PIL): Estimates what level of support a patient is likely to need in the next shift, helping teams anticipate care needs and adjust staffing accordingly.
— BHAI Score Comparison (BHAI-SC): Provides AI-generated reasoning to explain changes in patient trajectories, offering clinical teams more visibility into why acuity is shifting and what to do next.
These tools integrate directly into EHR systems like Epic, making them part of the clinician’s natural workflow. Combined, they reflect a shift toward systems that don’t just report what happened, but actively help care teams reason through what might happen and prepare for it.”
Challenges Faced
When asking Szyperski about the challenges faced in building the company, he acknowledged:
“Raising capital over the past couple of years has been tough for everyone that I know of. The venture market, especially for early-stage companies, has been incredibly tight, and we feel fortunate to have found healthcare investors who believe in our mission and the large ‘potholes’ that we are filling for behavioral healthcare.”
“Beyond funding, health systems are complex and slow-moving, understandably so, given the clinical stakes. Getting buy-in from administrators is one step but getting technology into the daily nursing workflow is another step altogether. And that second step is critical because if your application is not readily accessible in user workflow, then no one has time to look for it and it won’t be used.”
“Thankfully, our roots in health systems gave us a built-in advantage. Our solution is embedded directly into our nurse workflows, which helped us overcome that hurdle from the beginning. Still, our ongoing challenge is speed of adoption, and that is the nature of healthcare. Health systems move slowly and thoughtfully, and for good reason as we are supporting the clinical decisions being made in the psychiatric units we support.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since its launch? Szyperski noted:
“We started by tackling the core issue: behavioral health lacked a reliable ‘thermometer’—a way to consistently measure patient acuity and staff needs. That was step one: create a simple, shared yardstick. Now, the platform has evolved significantly. We’ve added an AI-powered backend that correlates patient data, staff input, medications, and more to offer predictive insights.”
“It allows us to project needs for upcoming shifts with impressive accuracy, vital for under-resourced teams. What began as a measurement tool is now a robust, data-driven clinical operating system that gives nurse managers and clinicians the information they need, in real time, to improve care and staffing efficiency. And we’re just getting started.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Szyperski cited:
“First, we transitioned from an R&D project to a live, production-ready product integrated into hospital workflows.”
“Second, we underwent third-party validation, which is critical in healthcare, to demonstrate the tool’s safety, reliability, and utility.”
“Third, we secured funding to scale operations, add staff, and build out our AI-powered analytics platform, Insight, which brings powerful dashboarding and reporting to nurse managers.”
“And finally, getting the platform live in real customer environments and seeing it in action. That’s the milestone that really brings it all together.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Szyperski about whether there are customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Absolutely. Several of our customers have told us they’ve never had access to this level of information before. From an efficiency and resource allocation standpoint, it’s been a game changer. One particularly exciting development is with a customer who’s making real progress toward reimbursement for critical care services like step-up and step-down care.”
“Historically, inpatient psychiatric care has been reimbursed on a per diem basis that covers only about 65–70% of actual costs.”
“We are helping to establish a baseline so our health systems partners can quantify with actionable data what should be reimbursed. As of last month, our customer is working with their state Medicaid agency to push forward incremental reimbursement for critical care services. We had expected this process to take at least 18–24 months, but it’s already moving faster than anticipated. We are watching this intently as are our other health system users.”
Funding
When asking Szyperski about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“We recently completed a $1 million seed funding round led by Valor Ventures, with participation from Forum Ventures and other strategic investors. The capital is helping us accelerate go-to-market efforts, expand our team, and further develop our AI-powered insights engine.”
“What makes this funding especially meaningful is that it supports a platform built in collaboration with leading behavioral health systems—real-world practitioners who helped define the need and co-develop the solution. Our investors recognized the urgency and impact of this work, particularly in improving clinical consistency, resource allocation, and staff support in a historically underserved area of healthcare.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Szyperski assessed:
“Right now, we’re focused on inpatient psychiatric care. That alone represents a U.S. market of about $1 billion for our specific offering. The broader inpatient psych market is roughly $80 billion. But the same approach we are following for inpatient psychiatry also applies to partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient programs, and even home care.”
“When you look at it through that lens, our addressable market grows to $2–5 billion globally, much of it white space. We believe we’re creating a new category, a new standard for how care is measured and managed in these settings.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Szyperski affirmed:
“Most hospital resource tools are built to serve everyone in the hospital the same way. Behavioral health doesn’t work like that. It’s more dynamic, more volatile. At any time, 13–16% of behavioral health patients may require continuous observation, meaning a staff member must be physically present outside their door. That’s a huge burden on staffing.”
“Our system is purpose-built for inpatient psychiatry and behavioral healthcare. It’s predictive, specific, and tuned to the realities of this environment. It tracks resources and anticipates needs. That level of specificity and accuracy is what sets us apart.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Szyperski concluded:
“Our goal is to create and drive a sustainable care model for behavioral health, starting with inpatient psychiatry, which generally operates at a financial loss for hospitals. Most short-term acute care and behavioral health hospitals are operating with thin margins, and departments like psychiatry and maternal care—both typically reimbursed via outdated per diem models—are becoming unsustainable.”
“We need to change that by providing the data and tools that bring behavioral health closer to parity with the rest of healthcare. That means establishing standards, models, and measurable outcomes, not eliminating the qualitative aspects of care, but complementing them with actionable data. If we can do that, we’re not just making systems more efficient. We’re increasing access, improving care, and giving behavioral health the seat at the table it’s always deserved.”
