Nursing Home Patients Underserved

To the Editor.— The forecast of an oversupply of physicians in the United States has become a topic of regular discussion 1 and was again noted in a recent article by Schroeder 2 inThe Journal. If there is to be an abundance of physicians in the near future, then it is important to explore areas that are underserved by doctors at present. International health is mentioned in a recent article as one such example. 3 However, we do not need to leave our country to find areas in desperate need of physician involvement. The nursing home is one health care facility relatively neglected by physicians. Traditionally, medical residencies have not acquainted physician trainees with long-term-care settings. An official recognition 4 of the internist's responsibility to provide quality care to the chronically ill has led our medical residency program to develop a geriatric medicine component that includes a community nursing