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Hardenbergh Group

External Peer Review

Powered by MDReview™

The Power of Peers.

Nationwide network of 450+ board-certified, actively practicing physician reviewers providing unbiased assessment of care in all specialties and subspecialties.

Our team and community of physicians are ready to support your organization.

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Changing the Course and Culture of Peer Review

For over 20 years, Hardenbergh has offered external physician peer review services, powered by MDReview, to hospitals nationwide to help improve quality of care. As the only physician-led peer review service in the market, we work closely with medical staff leaders to identify and resolve physician issues impacting organizational performance. Focusing on integrity, objectivity, sensitivity, confidentiality, and timeliness, our differentiation in the market is based on our:

  • Caliber of physician reviewers (invite only)
  • Depth of network and breadth of medical specialties
  • Extensive, internal credentialing process of reviewers
  • Use of in-house, physician Medical Directors for quality assurance
  • Rapid turnaround time
  • Experience with the largest U.S. health systems

We offer several types of reviews, designed to address different needs:

Comprehensive Reviews

Comprehensive Reviews evaluate all aspects of clinical care provided to a patient. Specific questions asked by the client are included if needed. The results are delivered as a detailed narrative report. Comprehensive Reviews are the most frequently requested by our clients.

Focused Reviews

Focused Reviews evaluate limited components of care. Typically, clients will pose clinical questions or concerns for the review to address such as, “Did an indication exist for a certain procedure?” or “Was the H & P thorough and complete?” or “Were complications managed appropriately?” The results are then delivered in a limited narrative report.

OPPE/FPPE Reviews

OPPE/FPPE Reviews evaluate and validate a provider’s clinical competence. We help our clients execute the ongoing evaluation of providers to meet accreditation requirements. Our clients find value in using external review for OPPE/FPPE because of the objectivity and impartiality it provides.

Medical Necessity and Audit Reviews

The introduction of federal initiatives and an organization’s desire to assess the necessity of treatment impacting quality patient care has resulted in the need for peer review to determine whether the care was reasonable and appropriate based on patient diagnosis and treatment. Our medical necessity reviews provide impartial review of cases to evaluate whether patient care documentation contains appropriate rationale for the care provided and meets ethical practice and compliance standards.

CINA – Cardiac Intervention Necessity Assessment provides healthcare organizations a specific, unbiased means to evaluate the medical necessity and appropriateness of PCI procedures. Applied within MDReview’s unique and proven peer review process by its carefully selected team of interventional cardiologists, specific, evidence-based criteria are used to evaluate each patient’s medical record to determine whether or not the procedure was appropriate.

Fair Hearing Support

The fair hearing process is extremely sensitive and challenging for many healthcare organizations. We can assist with developing and ensuring a structured process and provide support leading up to, and during, the fair hearing proceedings.
We help our clients prepare for fair hearings in several ways to help facilitate a smooth and well-prepared hearing including:

  • Aligning the expectations of all participants
  • Scheduling planning sessions with hospital leadership, legal counsel, physician reviewer(s), and Hardenbergh leadership
  • Coordinating scheduling of all participants
  • Managing medical records relevant to the proceedings
  • Providing a secure system for the sharing of electronic documents
  • Serving as a conduit for communication among peer review related participant

Nationwide Network of 450+ Physician Reviewers

Only Actively Practicing, Board-Certified Reviewers

The quality of our work is a result of the selective process we use when considering physician reviewers. All our reviewers are board certified and actively practicing physicians. Our network is built by invitation only, and a physician reviewer must be highly recommended before being considered for our medical staff. Once accepted, every reviewer is oriented in our disciplined and proven methods and continually supported and monitored to ensure outstanding performance. Our network of 450+ physician reviewers in every specialty and subspecialty is available to help with any peer review challenge or project you are facing.

Medical Director Team

Our superior team of specialty-specific medical directors provides an unprecedented level of clinical oversight and expertise.

 

Donald J. Lefkowits, MD, FACEP, Executive Medical Director
Emergency Medicine

Dr. Lefkowits received his undergraduate degree and medical degree and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He began his career in Emergency Medicine in 1980 and has practiced at Rose Medical Center since 1984. During his tenure at Rose, Dr. Lefkowits served as a member of the hospital Board of Trustees, President of the Medical Staff, Chair of the Credentials Committee, and Chair of the Peer Review Committee. He supported hospital and medical staff functions by chairing fair hearings, providing crisis management and press interactions, and developing and nurturing physician leadership programs. As Medical Director of the Emergency Department, Dr. Lefkowits has overseen a growth in volume from 30,000 annual visits to 45,000. He has put in place state-of-the-art Cardiac, Stroke, and Trauma alert programs and helped the Rose ED lead the way in programs to enhance ED throughput and patient safety and satisfaction metrics. In 2008, Dr. Lefkowits was honored in 5280: The Denver Magazine as the Top ED Doctor in Denver. Dr. Lefkowits is Board Certified in emergency medicine and internal medicine. Dr. Lefkowits is the immediate Past President of the Colorado Medical Board where he served for eight years.

Brock Bordelon, MD, FACS, Medical Director
Surgery

Dr. Bordelon attended the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, followed by a general surgery residency at the University of Utah School of Medicine. While in Salt Lake City, he completed a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Bordelon is certified by the American Board of Surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, and the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons, among other regional and national professional societies. He has practiced general and minimally invasive surgery in Colorado Springs since 1994, and has served as the Chief of Surgery, a member of the Medical Executive Committee, and the Citizenship Committee, among several other hospital medical staff functions. He has been named as a “Top Doctor” by his peers in Colorado Springs Style magazine. Dr. Bordelon was a member of the Colorado Medical Board for four years and served as the chair of one of the board’s inquiry panels during that time.

Robert Duerr, MD, FACC, Medical Director
Cardiology

Dr. Duerr is Board Certified in interventional cardiology and cardiovascular disease and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Boston. He completed his internship in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and his residency at Bellevue Hospital, New York University, in New York City. He completed fellowships in cardiology at the University of California, San Diego and interventional cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Duerr joined St. Luke’s Idaho Cardiology Associates in 1999 and is the current director of the Heart Valve Center at St. Luke’s Heart in Boise, Idaho. Dr. Duerr was integral in the development of CINA (Cardiac Intervention Necessity Assessment), an external peer review utilizing well-accepted criteria in clearly establishing the clinical necessity of PCI, which was launched in 2012.

Todd Thompson, MD, Medical Director
Neurosurgery

Dr. Thompson is Board Certified in Neurological Surgery and a fellow of the American College of Surgery. He earned his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. He completed his internship in General Surgery and his residency in Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.  He completed a fellowship in Image guided surgery and Gamma Knife Radiosurgery at UPMC.  Dr. Thompson served as the neuroscience section chief and neurosurgery medical practice leader for the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.  In 2022, Dr. Thompson joined Medtronic and currently is the Senior Director of Medical Safety for the Cranial and Spinal Technologies and Neurovascular operating units.  Dr. Thompson has been a member of the MD-Review team since 2013 and became the Neurosurgery Medical Director in 2022.

Chandra Hartman, MD
Family Medicine

Dr. Hartman received her medical degree at Temple University/Lewis Katz School of Medicine and completed her residency training in Family Medicine at Ventura County Medical Center in California. She has practiced full spectrum Family Medicine since 2005 and was the Program Director and faculty member of Family Medicine residency programs in Denver and Western Massachusetts. Additionally, Dr. Hartman has been a member of multiple peer review and medical executive committees, served as a peer consultant for physician education programs, held leadership positions in both national and state level Family Medicine academies, served as Department Chair of Family Medicine for multiple years and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Since 2020, Dr. Hartman has practiced at Baystate Health in Western Massachusetts and is the Program Director for Greenfield Family Medicine Residency, in Greenfield, MA.

 

 

 

Peer Review Consulting

A well-executed peer review program should bring value to an organization, elevate patient safety, and support provider success. More often, OPPE, FPPE, ongoing evaluation of providers, and peer review simply meet accreditation requirements or respond to poor outcomes. We help our clients develop, design, and implement better peer review programs that improve their practitioners, quality metrics, and patient outcomes. Our experts can help with:

  • Development of Professional Practice Evaluation (PPE) Process, including Ongoing (OPPE) and Focused (FPPE)
  • Integration of Quality and Medical Staff Peer Review Programs
  • Quality Process Design and Implementation
  • Patient Safety Programs
  • Peer Review Redesign and Implementation
  • Peer Review Committee Education
  • Development of Multidisciplinary Peer Review Program / Committee
  • Development of an Enterprise / System Peer Review Process

“We had a need for a complicated cardiothoracic surgery review. The report MDReview provided was comprehensive in content, well organized, and clearly answered the clinical question posed by our committee. The staff at MDReview was responsive, helpful, and very professional. We will definitely use them again.”

Peer Review Coordinator
Multi-Facility Non-Profit Health System

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