Southside Behavioral Health's team was spending more than 40 hours each month on manual chart review — and even then, they could only audit about 10% of charts. Nicole Lewis, Southside's director of quality and compliance, knew this wasn't enough.

When a routine audit uncovered a systemic and expensive documentation issue in fall 2024, it confirmed what Nicole suspected: spot-checking wasn't giving them the visibility they needed.

In Nicole’s search for solutions, she looked for partners that understood her industry’s pain points, offered customizable features, and could handle a large volume of monthly notes. “That was Brellium,” she recalled.

The challenge: Too many charts, too little time

Before working with Brellium, Southside faced a challenge common to most behavioral health organizations: their manual review processes could only cover a fraction of charts each month. Supervisors spot-checked what they could, but Nicole knew this left gaps in their compliance visibility.

The tipping point came during a routine audit when the team found a documentation error in one provider's notes. As the quality team investigated further, they realized the issue was more widespread than a single case.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, how big is this going to go?’” Nicole said. 

Over the next six weeks, the quality team reviewed all mental health outpatient records, dedicating 300 man-hours to the investigation. It was exactly the kind of comprehensive review they needed to do regularly, but couldn’t scale manually. 

“I was tired of looking at spreadsheets.”

The solution: Review every chart, automatically.

Brellium reviews 100% of Southside’s individual counseling notes against payor requirements before billing. The platform automatically checks every note, sending only those with errors back to the team for remediation.

This process has already increased Southside’s monthly chart review coverage by 10x and transformed Nicole’s confidence in Southside’s audit readiness. Southside plans to use Brellium to audit Comprehensive Needs Assessments next. As the partnership deepens, Nicole expects to use Brellium to certify 100% of Southside’s documentation, across all note types.

“I’m actually excited for next December when our licensing specialist comes in and audits us, because I think it’s gonna be a whole different ball game.”

Scale QA without adding headcount

Before Brellium, chart review fell to clinical supervisors. The team spent an estimated 44 hours per month on manual reviews and was considering hiring additional staff solely for auditing. 

Now, all auditing is handled by Southside's three-person quality team, who review only the charts Brellium flags for remediation. In total, they’re spending about five hours per month—an 89% reduction. 

“It's so much faster and it's looking at a much larger volume of notes, which is really wonderful because we couldn't do that ourselves,” Nicole said. 

With Brellium handling the heavy lifting, clinical supervisors have their time back for what matters most: patient care, staff supervision and provider training. Meanwhile, the quality team redirects time savings to risk management planning and continuous improvement programs that weren't possible before. 

"Brellium gave supervisors time back to focus on staff supervision, training and direct client care."

Improve quality over time through provider feedback

Southside will also reduce its compliance risk over time as providers receive education about how to improve their coding accuracy.

Every week, Brellium sends reports detailing patterns in documentation errors by provider and location. Monthly trend data gives Nicole insights into where clinicians need support, enabling faster coaching loops.

Nicole has already seen month-over-month improvements in coding accuracy as providers implement feedback from Brellium.

“We’re excited to see where Brellium takes us, and the staff have been excited about getting feedback.”

The impact: Peace of mind and proactive compliance

Since implementing Brellium, Southside Behavioral Health has already gained:

Complete visibility: 100% of individual counseling notes are reviewed before billing, up from less than 10%.

Massive time savings: From 44 hours to 5 hours per month on chart review.

Avoided hiring costs: No need to add headcount for auditing.

Continuous improvement: Month-over-month improvements in documentation quality through provider feedback.

Audit confidence: Team is now excited, not anxious, about documentation defensibility in upcoming audits.

And they're just getting started. As Southside works with Brellium to expand automatic audits to additional note types, Southside expects these improvements to compound over time.

For Nicole the value of Brellium is assurance. After undergoing the compliance nightmare of having to submit a payback, Brellium gives her an added confidence that coding is compliant and correct, every time. 

In her words: "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.’”

About Brellium

Clinical teams trust Brellium to reduce compliance risks, improve quality, and save time. Leading organizations trust Brellium to protect revenue and stay audit-ready.