New service at Medical Unit 21 will benefit more than 98,000 IMSS patients and reduce trips to Tijuana
The IMSS Medical Unit 21 in Rosarito has opened a new laboratory sample collection service, allowing patients to have basic laboratory tests performed locally instead of traveling to Tijuana.
The service was officially inaugurated Tuesday, September 22, by Desirée Sagarnaga Durante, regional delegate of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in Baja California. She was joined by medical staff, laboratory specialists, local health advocates and Fabiola Macías Corona, director of Medical Unit 21.
The new service includes two sample collection stations where medical personnel will collect patient samples, reducing the need for Rosarito residents to travel to medical facilities in Tijuana.
Macías Corona said the service will benefit more than 98,000 IMSS patients in Rosarito. She noted that between 2,000 and 2,100 patients previously traveled each month to IMSS Medical Unit 7 in Tijuana for laboratory tests. Those patients included residents from Primo Tapia, Colonia Morelos and Lomas Altas.
The new facility will provide basic laboratory testing and blood sample collection.
“Starting today, the Baja California IMSS delegation is making blood sample collection services available, helping reduce waiting times for basic laboratory tests,” Macías Corona said.
She thanked the medical personnel and facilities in Tijuana that had provided laboratory services to Rosarito patients over the years, including Medical Unit 7, laboratory specialist José de Jesús Romero Beltrán, and Family Medicine Unit 33.
Sagarnaga Durante explained that IMSS facilities in Rosarito had continued providing laboratory services, but samples and patients requiring testing had previously been referred to Tijuana.
“Although patients previously had to be sent to Tijuana, laboratory services were never discontinued. What we are celebrating now is that we have the service here,” Sagarnaga Durante said.
She explained that the change took time because laboratory services are provided through contracts with suppliers, which can be annual or multi-year. With the new agreement, she said, Rosarito patients will no longer have to travel to Tijuana for most laboratory services, although some specialized tests will continue to be referred elsewhere.
Sagarnaga Durante also said waiting times for laboratory services have improved significantly following the opening of the full laboratory at Family Medicine Unit 33 in Tijuana and the redistribution of patients among medical units and hospitals.
She said that at IMSS Medical Unit 20, waiting times for laboratory services are currently about three to four days, compared with several months a year earlier.
According to Sagarnaga Durante, the opening of the laboratory at Family Medicine Unit 33 has helped reduce the backlog of patients previously referred to Medical Unit 7, while additional laboratory capacity has also increased the availability of sample collection services.