Phone System

A new telephone system for ten Harvard medical area institutions that allows direct dialing from outside phones to extensions within the system was installed on Saturday by the New England Telephone Company.

Every extension at Harvard Medical School, the School of Dental Medicine, the School of Public Health, and seven other medical affiliates has been reassigned to a different number under the system.

The institutions installed a central exchange to "make for a more efficient telephone system," Donald K. Kerr, communications analyst at Harvard, said yesterday.

Connections between the medical area system and the University CENTREX are made by dialing 182 from Cambridge--122 from the medical area--and then the last five digits. The main number for the three schools is now 732-1000.