An analysis of the use of the telephone in the management of patients in skilled nursing facilities.

Objective: To characterize the nature of telephone communication in the care of patients in skilled nursing facilities, noting numbers of calls, reasons for communication, and the outcomes of the interactions, and to implement a voice mail system to manage the burden of communication more effectively and describe the impact of this system.

Design: An archival descriptive study of phone message data covering a period of 1 year in a defined population of nursing home patients, with an intervention and an evaluation of a voice mail system at the conclusion of the year's study.

Setting: A long-term care practice associated with an urban family practice residency program.

Factors influencing the development of area health education centers with Texas-Mexico border populations.

Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) have been viewed as an appropriate vehicle for implementing new initiatives for training health professionals who will work along the U.S.-Mexico border.