The effects of a community-based partnership, Project Access Dallas (PAD), on emergency department utilization and costs among the uninsured.

Background: Approximately 19% of non-elderly adults are without health insurance. The uninsured frequently lack a source of primary care and are more likely to use the emergency department (ED) for routine care. Improving access to primary care for the uninsured is one strategy to reduce ED overutilization and related costs.

Providing access to specialty care for severely disabled institutional residents: an academic health center telemedicine model.

The UT Southwestern Virtual Wound Care Clinic provides care to disabled institutional residents in an urban setting. The program offers flexible financial mechanisms for residents of the facility to access specialty care. Telemedicine improves quality-of-life and reduces costs by minimizing patient transportation.

Patient perceptions of a community-based care coordination system.

Community health workers (CHWs) work with health professionals to improve health outcomes by facilitating community-based health education and increase access and continuity to health services within a community. Uninsured, low-income participants of a community-based program, Project Access Dallas, participated in focus group sessions for determining participants' perceptions of CHW effectiveness and participants' abilities to independently manage their health needs. Of the 95 adults invited, 24 (25.

Use of computers and the Internet by residents in US family medicine programmes.

Computers, personal digital assistants (PDA), and the Internet are widely used as resources in medical education and clinical care. Educators who intend to incorporate these resources effectively into residency education programmes can benefit from understanding how residents currently use these tools, their skills, and their preferences. The researchers sent questionnaires to 306 US family medicine residency programmes for all of their residents to complete.