How Southside Behavioral Health went from audit anxiety to audit confidence with Brellium

“Brellium is giving us the peace of mind to go: 'Okay, we're doing what we're supposed to be doing; we can breathe a little bit.'”

Southside Behavioral Health was spending over 40 hours each month on manual chart review and still only auditing about 10% of charts. Director of quality and compliance, Nicole Lewis, knew this limited visibility put the organization at risk.

When a routine audit in fall 2024 uncovered a systemic and costly documentation issue, it confirmed that spot-checking charts wasn’t enough. The quality team then spent six weeks and 300 hours reviewing all mental health outpatient records to fully understand the scope of the problem.

The challenge: Too many charts, too little time

Like many behavioral health organizations, Southside relied on manual, supervisor-led chart reviews. Supervisors spot-checked what they could, but the volume of charts meant most documentation went unreviewed each month. Nicole recognized that this approach left significant blind spots in compliance and quality assurance.

The turning point came when a documentation error in one provider’s notes, discovered during a routine audit, was found to be part of a broader, systemic issue. Addressing it required a massive, time-intensive investigation.

The solution: Review every chart, automatically

Southside implemented Brellium to automatically review 100% of individual counseling notes against payor requirements before billing. Instead of manually combing through charts, the team now relies on Brellium to:

• Automatically check every note for documentation and coding issues
• Flag only notes with errors for human review and remediation

This change increased Southside’s monthly chart review coverage by 10x and gave Nicole far greater confidence in the organization’s audit readiness.

Scale QA without adding headcount

Previously, clinical supervisors were responsible for chart review, spending an estimated 44 hours per month on manual audits. Southside was even considering hiring additional staff dedicated to auditing.

With Brellium in place:

• All auditing is now handled by Southside’s three-person quality team
• They only review charts that Brellium flags for remediation
• Total time spent on chart review has dropped to about five hours per month—an 89% reduction

This shift has freed clinical supervisors to focus on patient care, staff supervision, and provider training instead of manual auditing.

Improve quality over time through provider feedback

Brellium doesn’t just catch errors—it helps prevent them over time. Each week, Southside receives reports highlighting patterns in documentation errors by provider and location. Monthly trend data shows where clinicians need additional support.

Armed with these insights, Nicole and her team can:

• Target coaching and training where it’s needed most
• Close feedback loops quickly with providers
• Track month-over-month improvements in coding and documentation accuracy

Nicole has already seen measurable improvements as providers apply feedback from Brellium’s reports.

The impact: Peace of mind and proactive compliance

Since implementing Brellium, Southside Behavioral Health has realized:

• Complete visibility: 100% of individual counseling notes are reviewed before billing, up from less than 10%.
• Massive time savings: Chart review time reduced from 44 hours to 5 hours per month.
• Avoided hiring costs: No need to add additional staff solely for auditing.
• Continuous improvement: Ongoing, data-driven improvements in documentation and coding quality.
• Audit confidence: The team now feels prepared and confident—excited rather than anxious—about documentation defensibility in upcoming audits.

By automating chart review with Brellium, Southside has transformed quality assurance from a reactive, labor-intensive process into a proactive, scalable compliance program.