Table 1.

Sociodemographic characteristics of participants in the qualitative interview study

	General practices		Hospitals			Total
	GPs	VERAHsa	Management	Physicians	Nursing staff
Age	58 (50–64)* n = 6	40.5 (31–54)* n = 11	50 (29–60)* n = 15	53.5 (34–67)* n = 6	41 (21–61)* n = 11	47 (21–67)* n = 49
Sex (male)	2 (33%)** n = 6	0 (0%)** n = 11	7 (47%)** n = 15	5 (83%)** n = 6	1 (9%)** n = 11	15 (31%)** n = 49
Urban area	3 (50%)** n = 6	6 (60%)** n = 10	10 (66%)** n = 15	2 (33%)** n = 6	7 (64%)** n = 11	28 (60%)** n = 49
Years of experience	16.5 (2–25)* n = 6	17.5 (3–38)* n = 10	12 (2–22) n = 15	18 (7–32) n = 6	11 (0.2528) n = 11	14 (0.25–38)* n = 48
Single practice	4 (67%)** n = 6	5 (50%)** n = 10				9 (56%)** n = 16
Practice size (patients per quarter year)	1467 (850–2400)* n = 6	1775 (999–3000)* n = 8				1643 (850–3000)* n = 14
Hospital size: basic and regular careb			6 (40%)** n = 15	4 (67%)** n = 6	7 (64%)** n = 11	17 (53%)** n = 32

^*mean (min–max), ** Frequencies (percent)^a care assistant in general practice^b In Baden-Wuerttemberg (our setting), hospital supply used to be based on the division of hospitals into categories, based on the number of beds. There is a distinction between basic, regular, specialized, and maximum care (e.g. provided by university hospitals). Basic care hospitals only provide some highly used inpatient services, such as obstetrics, emergency care, and internal medicine. Albeit no longer used, this categorisation still gives an impression of the size and geographical reach of a hospital [22]. The number provided refers to hospitals that belong to the categories basic and regular care