Regional variations of perceived problems in ambulatory care from the perspective of general practitioners and their patients - an exploratory focus group study in urban and rural regions of northern Germany

Table 1 Description of study participants: GPs (n = 65)

	Urban areas	Environs	Rural areas
Age in years:
mean ± sd:	54,3 ± 7,7	50,6 ± 8,8	55,0 ± 9,7
Gender:
Male	18	14	12
Female	6	5	10
Number of patients treated in practice in each quarter:
Up to 749 patients	42%	5%	9%
750 patients and more	58%	95%	91%
Number of physicians working in practice:
1	21%	48%	41%
2	46%	21%	46%
3	17%	21%	14%
4	13%	5%	-
5	4%	5%	-
Years of practice experience:
mean ± sd	17,4 ± 10,0	12,4 ± 9,4	15,4 ± 9,2
Type of practice:
Single practice	25,0%	52,6%	50,0%
Group practice (common accounting)	54,2%	42,1%	36,4%
Community practice (separate accounting)	20,8%	5,3%	13,6%

ISSN: 2731-4553