UNMC_Acronym_Vert_sm_4c
University of Nebraska Medical Center

Patient Care

The division of infectious diseases supports all infection control activities at Nebraska Medicine and is actively involved in clinical care.

We provide care through Nebraska Medicine and the HIV Clinic. Click here for a list of infectious disease specialists.

Our division works to minimize the risks of infectious diseases in patients, workers, students and visitors using innovative methods. We also broadly share our methods and knowledge with others, notably through the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. In addition to the infection prevention mission at all University of Nebraska campuses, our infectious diseases faculty support a wide variety of community facilities throughout the state, including critical access hospitals, long-term care facilities, ambulatory sugical centers, dialysis centers and more through the Nebraska Infection Control Assessment and Promotion (ICAP) program.

Where We Practice

Patients must have a physician referral for an infectious diseases consultation. Our faculty sees patients at the locations listed below and telehealth appointments are also available.

Patient Care Specialties and Services

Inpatient Care

The division maintains two active inpatient services. The General Infectious Diseases service cares for a variety of patients with both common and uncommon infections throughout the hospital, ICU and surgical care areas. The Transplant Infectious Diseases service provides care for both pediatric and adult solid organ transplant patients. Specialized care is also provided for oncologic and bone marrow transplant patients and patients with bone and joint infections.

Outpatient Care

We provide outpatient consultation and/or continuing care for patients with a variety of infectious disease conditions including osteomyelitis, endocarditis, infections due to resistant pathogens, complicated fungal infections, infections in patients with compromised immune systems, and many others.

Transplant

The Transplant Infectious Diseases Program actively collaborates with each individual transplant program to provide excellent clinical care in the inpatient and outpatient setting. We provide educational support for the transplant programs to ensure that the clinical practices meet the current standard of care.

The Transplant Infectious Disease service is dedicated to solid organ transplant recipients with infectious complications. We also evaluate patients who are under consideration for heart transplant or left ventricular assist device (LVAD), patients in the intestinal rehabilitation program, and other transplant candidates in need of infectious evaluation.

In 2009, the Transplant Infectious Disease service evolved from an immunocompromised service to distinctly support the institution’s growing world-class solid organ transplant programs, which now include liver, kidney, pancreas, small bowel, multivisceral, heart and lung transplantion. Our institution performs over 300 solid organ transplants annually. We work collaboratively with our surgical and sub-specialty colleagues in patient care and research.

Common problems we manage include post-operative infections, various opportunistic infections post-transplant including CMV and endemic fungal infections, and complicated or recurrent UTI in kidney transplant recipients to name a few. We also counsel regarding preventive management in transplant including prophylactic antimicrobials and vaccination pre- and post-transplant.

In addition to dedicated transplant infectious diseases faculty, we have three advanced practice providers, rotating fellows and an outpatient clinic nurse who support our team. We see patients in the inpatient setting at the Nebraska Medical Center campus and outpatient in the Multi-Organ Transplant Clinic in the Lied Center on main campus.

HIV Specialty Clinic

Clinical care for patients with HIV/AIDS is provided at the Specialty Care Clinic located at 52nd and Leavenworth Street.

Community Infectious Disease

The Community Infectious Disease service provides ID services to facilities outside of the main campus at UNMC. It is one of the few fully dedicated academic community infectious disease services in the country. The service started in December 2018 and provided new opportunities for the division to expand the diversity and continuity of patient care it provides. In addition, we are fully involved in academic research activity, as well as teaching.

General Infectious Disease

The General Infectious Disease service is the primary teaching service at UNMC. This service cares for a variety of adult patients with both common and uncommon infections throughout all hospital, ICU, and surgical care areas. Common problems include endocarditis, CNS infections including meningitis and encephalitis, fevers of unknown origin, osteomyelitis, infections in the ICU, post-operative infections, management of drug-resistant pathogens, and the management of more common conditions such as UTI, pneumonia and skin and soft tissue infection. The General ID team consists of an attending physician, an ID fellow, and three to four Internal Medicine residents. Medical and pharmacy students along with pharmacy residents may also be part of the team. The faculty who support the General ID service are all excellent teachers and enjoy working with trainees. The ID division also supports a number of general ID clinics which occur on all days of the week in the Durham Outpatient Center. The clinics focus on ensuring follow-up care of previously hospitalized patients along with providing consultative care to new ambulatory ID referrals. Finally, we support a multidisciplinary Non-tuberculous Mycobacterial Infection Clinic where patients are evaluated and treated for this difficult to treat infection. This clinic occurs with faculty support from the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine and focuses on the overall management of these medically complex patients.   

Oncology Infectious Disease

The Oncology Infectious Disease program is dedicated to the treatment and prevention of infectious complications in patients receiving cancer therapy. We care for patients undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy for hematologic and solid tumor malignancies. In addition, we provide consultative care for patients receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplantations and CAR T-Cell therapy. This service was created in 2000 to support UNMC’s nationally renowned, NCCN-designated cancer center. We work in close collaboration with our hematology, oncology and surgical sub-specialty colleagues in patient care, research and education. We see patients in the inpatient and outpatient setting at the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center on the UNMC campus. We work with three dedicated advanced practice providers and rotating fellows.

Orthopedic Infectious Disease

The Orthopedic Infectious Disease service treats patients with complex bone and joint infections. We are particularly focused on co-management of prosthetic joint and other surgical hardware infections with our orthopedic, vascular, and plastics and reconstructive surgery colleagues. 

This service was created in 2018 to support our orthopedic surgery team and improve the quality of prosthetic joint infection treatment as UNMC becomes the tertiary referral center of choice for orthopedic surgeons in the Midwest.

We see patients in the inpatient setting at the Nebraska Medical Center main campus and OrthoNebraska; we have clinics at Durham Outpatient Center and Lauritzen Outpatient Center on main campus.

Additional Resources

Nebraska Biocontainment Unit

UNMC is home to the internationally-acclaimed NBU, which is one of only a few biocontainment units in the U.S. Equipped to care for patients with highly hazardous communicable diseases, the NBU cared for several patients with Ebola virus disease during the outbreak in West Africa in 2014 as well as the first COVID-19 patients in the state of Nebraska.

Global Center for Health Security

The Global Center for Health Security at UNMC is home to the national Training, Simulation and Quarantine Center, which features the nation's only federal quarantine unit and simulated biocontainment units for advanced experiential training.