Table 1.

Characteristics of the study population

Physicians	General practitioners	Occupational health physicians	Rehabilitation physicians	Patients	Patients
Participants	n = 22	n = 9	n = 12	n = 15	Participants
Age average [median/(range)]	57/(40–67) years	55/(45–65) years	48/(34–58) years	53/(22–63) years	Age [median/(range)]
Gender: N. female	n = 9	n = 5	n = 6	n = 8	Gender: N. female
Work experience as physician	27/(13–40) years	29/(12–39) years	13/(6–30) years	One: n = 4 Two: n = 1 Three: n = 1	Previous rehabilitation therapies
Work experience in specialization [median/(range)]	21/(7–33) years	20/(1–32) years	11/(3–31) years
Type of employment	Solo practice: n = 13 Group practice: n = 9	Employed at enterprise: n = 1 Employed in occupational health service: n = 4 Freelance: n = 4		21 days: n = 4 28 days: n = 3 35 days: n = 5 >35 days: n = 3	Planned duration of rehabilitation (days)
Practice site	Urban: n = 2 Rural: n = 10 Mixed: n = 10	Urban: n = 5 Rural: n = 0 Mixed: n = 4		Mental health n = 5 Musculoskeletal n = 5	Reason for rehabilitation
Practice size (patients per 3 months)	<700: n = 2 700–1400: n = 14 >1400: n = 5	Responsible for SME: n = 8		Office work: n = 5 Industrial production: n = 3 Construction work: n = 1 Logistic sector: n = 1 Nursing care: n = 2 Pedagogue: n = 1 Cleaner: n = 1	Occupation
Rehabilitation applications [median/(range)]	35/(5–50) per year
Within catchment area of a company medical service?	In town: n = 7 In the country: n = 3 Both: n = 2 Without: n = 8			Small or medium enterprises: n = 7	Type of employer
				Business has OP: n = 8 Patient knows OP: n = 7	Relationship to OP (responses by patients)
Setting of data collection	Meeting room in the University Hospital Tübingen resp. in our institute in Tübingen	Meeting room in our institute in Tübingen and conference room in Stuttgart	Meeting room in rehabilitation clinics	Meeting room in rehabilitation clinics