Abstract: A patient monitoring system and method for predicting acute, nonspecific health events uses a statistical random effects model having a linear regression component. The system and method use the model to ascertain trends and/or levels in a patient's health over short periods of time to predict whether an event from a class of acute, nonspecific events has or will onset. The system and method also include a computational system, at least one covariate that is clinically relevant to the class, and data collected from the patient. Preferably, the statistical model is a hierarchical Bayesian model having two stages of prior distributions.