About Us
Infectious Disease Specialists (IDS) started in 1985 when Donald A. Strandberg, M.D. first came to town practicing medicine in his specialty. His expertise, attention to detail, and respect for his patients and colleagues is legendary. While Dr. Strandberg retired in 2012, his legacy lives on with his remaining partners. We have the unique distinction of not having had a physician join our practice who has left the practice for reasons other than retirement. This speaks well of the stability, cohesiveness, and collegiality of the practice and its physicians which ultimately translates into better patient care.
Infectious Disease Specialists provides services to our patient community on a consultative basis only. This means all patients must be referred to us by their primary care physician (PCP). This allows the patient's PCP to treat the infections they are comfortable treating while still giving them an avenue for those cases that require a specialist's intervention. This permits IDS to continue the good stewardship we strive to maintain for our patients and their insurance companies, alike. Once the referral has been made, we assume the care of the patient for their infectious disease problem only and continue to leave the care of the patient's acute and/or chronic problems to their PCP. This allows our specialty physicians to focus all of their attention on only the patient's problems that lie within our area of expertise. Rest assured we are diligent in keeping the patient's PCP apprised of their patient's condition with weekly updates through the time their patient is released from our care.
Included in our specialty care is treating those patients who have AIDS and/or are HIV positive. In that regard, we again work very closely with the patient's PCP. In addition, we have established a close relationship with the professionals at the Southern Colorado AIDS Project (S-CAP) who provide medical case management, prevention, and educational outreach services for those individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS.
Included in our outpatient specialty services, we also provide a full-service IV antibiotic infusion suite for our patients whose infection is such that oral antibiotics will not suffice. This comprises both on-site infusions by registered nurses as well as instructions on how to self-infuse at home for those patients whose insurances will cover that modality.
In addition to our outpatient facility, Infectious Disease Specialists also provides inpatient services at Memorial Central Hospital, Penrose Hospital, Memorial North Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, and Grandview Hospital. We also provide HIV specialty services for Peak Vista Community Health Centers at their Collaborative Clinic at Academy.
In addition to providing inpatient specialty services to these hospitals, our physicians also serve on several hospital committees. These include, but are not limited to, pharmacy and therapeutics, infection control, antibiotic stewardship, peer review, graduate medical education, and several ad hoc committees.