Fig. 1

Regional differences in physicians’ workload (the average number of annually discharged patients per physician). The overall average of the 419 general hospitals was 110.3. The hospitals in most populated cities (≥ 2,000,000) had less workload than the average by 21.9 patients (per physician annually) and significantly less workload than in other areas (< 100,000, < 200,000, < 300,000, < 400,000, < 600,000, < 1,000,000). The broken line shows this average number. The box plot shows standard error. *p < 0.05 in Tukey’s test