Table 1.

Description of the sampled regions in the study, including the number of participants

	Organisation of health and social care systema	Population	Number of study participants
Region 1	Joint municipal authority with eight municipalities, responsible for organising specialised as well as primary healthcare and social services in the region. One of the municipalities was not part of the joint municipal authority and had outsourced the social and primary healthcare services.	Low population density with approximately 70,000 inhabitants, approximately half of whom are centred around one municipality. The service needs are high due to the ageing population.	3 study participants
Region 2	Joint municipal authority with ten municipalities, responsible for organising specialised healthcare and most of the primary healthcare and social services in the region. For three municipalities, the primary services were outsourced to a private provider. Two of the municipalities in the region were not part of the joint municipal authority. The other had outsourced primary social and healthcare services to a private provider and the other arranged the services independently.	The region has approximately 200,000 inhabitants, while over half of them are centred to one municipality.	3 study participants
Region 3	A total of 23 municipalities in the region. The municipalities arranged primary healthcare and social services independently or through collaboration between municipalities. The hospital district was responsible for organising specialised healthcare.	The area has approximately 520,000 inhabitants, while almost half of them are centred in one city. The area has both urban densely populated areas and rural locations.	3 study participants
Region 4	Hospital district organised specialised healthcare in the region. Within the region, there were various arrangements for healthcare and social services.	The region has been the epidemic centre in Finland and has most experience in tackling a widespread epidemic. The region has approximately 1.7 million inhabitants, most of whom live in urban areas.	5 study participants

^aThe organisation of services are described as they were at the time of the study, prior to the health and social services reform which has taken place in January 2023