Indianapolis SUD Clinic Improves Documentation Quality with AI Chart Auditing

Synergy Recovery Network partnered with Brellium to automate chart auditing across their substance use treatment programs, achieving a 20% improvement in audit scores.

100%
notes reviewed
20%
improvement in audit performance
Same Day
provider feedback

"This is a thankless job. But with Brellium, our providers can see the work they're doing. It's good for compliance and it's good for morale."

Synergy Recovery Network is a residential treatment center in Indianapolis, Indiana, serving men and women recovering from substance use. The program offers housing, therapy, case management, and daily peer support to more than 70 participants at a time.

With growing documentation demands — including lengthy biopsychosocial assessments (BPSAs), strict Medicaid requirements, and a high volume of peer and clinical notes — Synergy needed a better way to ensure quality and compliance. Manual audits were inefficient and error-prone.

By partnering with Brellium to automate chart auditing, Synergy has saved time, improved compliance, and helped their providers deliver better care.

The Challenge

Before Brellium, Synergy’s audit process was entirely manual. Annegelique Parker, the Director of Clinical Services, would pick charts at random or ask which participants had been seen the previous day — a system that made it hard to audit fairly or consistently. The BPSAs alone were long and complex, often requiring careful review across multiple EMR tabs.

“It always felt like I was reviewing the same 10 people. And reviewing a single BPSA could mean flipping between therapist, peer, and case manager notes — which adds up fast when you’re auditing 80 participants.”

It was also difficult to identify systemic issues in documentation. Without visibility into patterns across staff, Annegelique couldn’t spot recurring errors — making it hard to train effectively or flag compliance risks early.

The Solution

Synergy adopted Brellium to audit clinical documentation across their entire care team — including licensed therapists, case managers, and peer recovery coaches (PRCs). Brellium’s AI audits notes using custom clinical and payer-aligned criteria, then flags incomplete or noncompliant documentation for follow-up.

Examples of Compliance and Quality Checks:

1. Missing primary care provider referrals
2. Symptoms of Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS)
3. Suicidal ideation or self-harm
4. ASAM Dimension coverage for insurance
5. Release of Information (ROI) when contacting external parties
6. Timeliness of documentation (note must be signed within 24 hours)
7. Required clinical verbiage
8. Direct quotes in peer recovery coach (PRC) notes
9. Use of participant’s name in PRC notes

Key Features in Use:

• BPSA Audits: Brellium reviews Synergy’s lengthy biopsychosocial assessments and flags missing or incomplete answers to critical clinical and insurance-required questions.
• Feedback Emails: Each provider receives real-time alerts when a note fails — often within 24 hours — so they can fix issues while the session is still fresh in their mind.
• Training Insights: Brellium helps Annegelique identify common issues across the team (e.g., missing ROIs, required verbiage, omitted direct quotes), turning documentation trends into targeted training opportunities.
• Analytics & Recognition: Synergy uses Brellium’s reporting to monitor progress over time and recognize clinicians with high documentation accuracy, reinforcing positive behavior.

“We saw one clinician go from 85% to 100% accuracy on their notes after receiving feedback from Brellium— it helped reinforce the right habits and made our training more effective.”

The Results

Since adopting Brellium, Synergy has seen meaningful improvements in documentation quality, efficiency, and team morale.

• Full Coverage Audits, Done Faster: With Brellium, Synergy can now audit 100% of clinical documentation — including complex biopsychosocial assessments — faster than ever before.

• Compliance Risk Prevention: Compliance risks are flagged automatically, including missing ROIs, safety screenings, and incomplete ASAM dimensions.

• Better Care Coordination: Brellium helps staff catch clinically important gaps, such as participants who don’t have a primary care provider, so referrals don’t fall through the cracks.

• Improved Provider Habits: Real-time email feedback has reduced repeat errors. In fact, when the emails slowed down, Synergy realized it wasn’t a bug — it was a sign that documentation had improved.

• Stronger Documentation Habits: Real-time email feedback reinforces good habits and reduces repeat errors. One clinician improved from 85% to 100% accuracy. Soon enough, providers stopped receiving feedback emails from Brellium because their documentation met all the requirements.

• 10% improvement in audit scores for therapy progress notes

• 16% improvement in audit scores for peer support notes

• 20% overall improvement in audit scores since December 2024

• Boosted Morale: Synergy uses Brellium’s audit data to identify staff with consistently strong documentation and recognize their efforts. By celebrating top performers, the team reinforces a culture of accountability, motivation, and pride in clinical work.

“Anytime you’re dealing with another company, you always want to feel like there’s a partnership, right? And it really does feel like a partnership with Brellium.”

Conclusion

For Synergy Recovery Network, Brellium has done more than streamline audits — it’s helped build a culture of quality. Clinicians document more thoroughly, leadership can train more effectively, and providers feel seen and supported.

“We always gave good care. Now we’re documenting it. That’s a huge shift.”

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