FBH Gave 800+ clinicians instant, reliable answers with Cassidy

Overview

If you work in behavioral health, there’s no margin for error, and time is always in short supply. Every minute a clinician spends searching for documentation is a minute a client waits and another layer of stress added to the practitioner’s day.

Frontier Behavioral Health (FBH), a nonprofit serving the greater Spokane area, supports over 800 clinicians across crisis lines, residential programs, and outpatient care. They’re operating in one of the most complex environments possible, balancing person-centered care with rigorous compliance standards.

So how do you support a distributed, regulated workforce without bottlenecks or burnout? You start by making access to information effortless. 

For FBH, that started with Cassidy.

Turning scattered resources into reliable answers

Before Cassidy, documentation at FBH was scattered across folders and internal systems, making it difficult for staff to quickly find what they needed. Clinicians and administrators were spending too much time tracking down policies or navigating the intranet just to answer simple questions.

That lost time pulled focus away from clients, created unnecessary back-and-forth, and slowed down essential workflows.

"The documents were there, but finding anything was not a great use of time," said Paul Arguinchona, Chief Information Officer.

Clinicians delayed sessions while hunting for job aids. The information existed but wasn’t accessible in the moments that mattered most.

The inefficiency didn’t show up as a line item. But everyone felt it.

Smart search that works where teams work

Paul wasn’t looking to overhaul FBH’s systems. He wanted a way to make the resources they already had more usable, more visible, and more helpful.

The documentation was there. The policies were written. The job aids for FBH’s electronic medical record system were up to date. But none of it was easy to find.

So Paul and his team brought in Cassidy as a low-risk experiment. The goal was simple: give staff a faster, more reliable way to get answers without interrupting their daily workflows.

They started by connecting files like job aids, policies, and reference documentation into Cassidy, and made it easy to access within Microsoft Teams. Then, they rolled Cassidy out across the organization, giving more than 700 clinicians immediate access.

It clicked.

Staff began using Cassidy to ask questions and retrieve information that previously took minutes to find, if they could find it at all. It became a reliable go-to for everything from clinical workflows to operational policies.

"We weren’t trying to create a love story," Paul joked. "But I’ll tell you — we’re married to Cassidy. This relationship’s just going to keep growing."

Here’s how that relationship has already transformed FBH’s internal operations:

Clinical workflows at the point of care

Before Cassidy, clinicians relied on memory, bookmarks, or time-consuming searches through the intranet to locate job aids and clinical documentation. Even experienced staff spent several minutes trying to find the right resource.

Cassidy eliminated that friction. 

Now, a clinician can ask a question in plain language, like how to reconcile medications or complete a specific EMR workflow, and receive the relevant guidance instantly.

"Staff use Cassidy every day," Paul said. "It’s faster than any other method we had."

By reducing time spent searching, Cassidy helped clinicians refocus their attention on care instead of navigation.

Instant answers for HR policy and employee support

Cassidy's early success with clinical teams made it clear that HR could benefit, too.

Paul noted that HR staff were fielding frequent questions about leave, benefits, and procedures even though the answers were already documented. The problem wasn’t the information itself. It was that people couldn’t easily find it.

To fix that, FBH is pointing Cassidy to their HR documents and policies. Employees can now search for policy information on their own and get clear, up-to-date answers in seconds.

"Before, we’d get daily questions about things that were already documented. Cassidy turned all of that into a self-service experience. Cassidy even allows us to refer the querying staff member back to HR for the more nuanced policy issues.” Paul said.

The result? Less back-and-forth, fewer repetitive questions, and more time for HR to focus on onboarding, recruiting, and employment engagement. 

How FBH made SPOT, their very own Cassidy-powered bot

Paul wanted Cassidy to feel approachable, not like another faceless software tool. So he gave it a name. They called it SPOT, short for Single Point of Truth.

To reinforce the branding, Paul created a mascot: a cheerful black Labrador retriever that "lives" in the taskbar, always ready to fetch answers.

SPOT helped Cassidy feel like part of the team. The playful branding created a sense of trust and familiarity, especially for staff who were already juggling complex workloads.

Instead of chasing down answers, employees could just ask SPOT. The response came back quickly, with links to the original source and no second guessing required.

What started as a simple experiment is now a cornerstone of how FBH works. And for Paul and his team, that’s just the beginning.

Scaling AI efforts with Cassidy

Cassidy now supports more than 800 employees daily through SPOT, integrated directly into FBH’s MS Teams environment. This makes it easy for staff to access knowledge without leaving the place they already work, streamlining adoption and reinforcing usage where it matters most.

Its impact spans departments, offering real-time access to information without additional training, complex rollouts, or added overhead. Clinical? HR? Contracts? Facilities? All of it is being shaped by Cassidy.

"The efficiency is just so clear when you see it in action," Paul said. "People are using it every day because it works."

As Cassidy becomes more embedded in FBH’s culture, demand continues to grow. One area with increasing pull? Billing and contract documentation — some of the most complex, high-stakes workflows in the organization.

To meet that need, FBH is now building a new assistant called KNOT — short for “Gordian Knot.” 

Designed specifically for contracts, data dictionaries, and internal reporting requirements. While KNOT will live separately from SPOT, it’s powered by the same Cassidy infrastructure that FBH’s teams already trust and rely on.

By extending Cassidy’s foundation into new domains, FBH is proving that when AI is implemented thoughtfully, it doesn’t just support teams, it helps them scale and become a part of all their processes. 

"We’ve got a great relationship," Paul said. "I think it’s going to revolutionize how information flows across FBH. Cassidy’s irreplaceable now."

See what Cassidy can do for your team

If you’re ready to make knowledge more accessible, reduce friction across teams, and build scalable internal workflows, schedule a demo with Cassidy today.