Tricore

Public health: Tricore, Inc. contributes to the betterment of public health in new mexico in several ways:- more expedient testing: Tricore Inc. Provides diagnostic testing services across most of new mexico, and is able to test more than 98% of the specimens it receives at its facilities, unlike other laboratories in new mexico. Tricore provides same-day or early-next-day results to physicians, so that therapies and treatments may begin immediately for new mexico patients. Due to the volume of testing, Tricore can provide esoteric testing that is not feasible for other labs to provide. This allows Tricore to continue to provide laboratory services to the underserved population in the state.underserved areas: almost all of new mexico is classified as a medically underserved area by the u.s. department of health and human services. Tricore's coverage area encompasses much of new mexico, providing much-needed testing services to locations deemed medically underserved by federal officials.patient-centered database: Tricore has developed a database that allows providers to view patient lab tests outside their particular electronic medical record (emr), so that lab tests ordered by other providers can be seen. This advancement results in fewer wasted duplicate lab tests being ordered and is especially appreciated by specialists who often only see a patient after several other providers have examined them and ordered lab tests.state reporting: about 70% of infectious diseases that are mandated to be reported to the new mexico department of health are from tests performed by Tricore. There is a list of 30 infectious diseases that must be reported to the department of health. When a specimen has tested positive for one of these diseases at a Tricore facility, Tricore immediately reports the incident to the state. Tricore's report occurs much more quickly than when physicians (receiving reports from other labs) report to the department of health. This speed in reporting enhances the protection of public health, by informing the department of health more quickly about possible outbreaks of diseases or other issues that need to be tracked by public health officers.

Education: Tricore, Inc. Trains a wide array of students in new mexico, from high school students to post-doctorate fellows. All students above high school meet specific requirements for their programs through their training at Tricore. New mexico colleges and universities do not offer these clinical rotations, so students have to come to Tricore to complete their programs. Tricore receives no fees for this training. The sheer volume of samples tested at Tricore only serves to enhance the educational programs at Tricore. Students receive more exposure to a wider range of pathologies and diseases because of the amount of testing done at Tricore. Following are among the training programs provided by Tricore:- high school level: the high school dual-credit program (20 to 40 students per year at 30 hours per student) introduces medical lab sciences to high school students and is a pre-requisite to phlebotomy and medical lab technician programs at a local community college. Also, Tricore offers job shadowing for 20 albuquerque public school students per year.- phlebotomy program - Tricore trains more than 250 phlebotomy students per year from nine state community colleges and universities in new mexico. The students spend 100 hours each at Tricore for their clinical requirements.- medical lab technician program - Tricore trains 18 to 22 students from community college and university programs. The students spend 384 hours each at Tricore.- medical lab scientist program - Tricore trains about 30 students a year in mls programs from several universities. Students spend 450 to 720 hours at Tricore.- graduate and post-doctoral programs - Tricore provides several programs for about 25 graduate and post-doctoral students from the university of new mexico, including the hematopathology fellowship program; the transfusion medicine fellowship program; the molecular genetics fellowship program; the cytopathology fellowship program; and the pathology resident clinical rotations in transfusion medicine, cytology, anatomic pathology, clinical chemistry, toxology, immunology, hematopathology, coagulation, infectious disease, molecular diagnostics, informatics, sample management, and client engagement (aka the hot seat). All of these programs support the accreditation council for graduate medical education training requirements for pathology residents and fellows. - pharmacy programs - Tricore trains up to 10 student pharmacists per year from the university of new mexico doctor of pharmacy program for their advanced pharmacy practice experience elective rotation. The students spend 16 hours each at Tricore, and the program fulfills the pharm.d experiential training requirements by the board of pharmacy.