In response to Washington rural residents concerned about availability and distribution of health care, a study was conducted to: (1) better understand the physicians serving rural Washington and (2) determine if their services could be increased by taking physicians out of their traditional solo practitioner roles and placing them in groups of 2, 3, or 4 doctors. All rural physicians were screened to isolate those whose practice was in a rural community of no more than 10,000 population, not more than 15 miles from a hospital, and staffed only by general practitioners. Forty-one physicians in 17 practices (5 solo practitioners and 4 practices of 2-man, 3-man, and 4-man groups) in 15 communities throughout Washington were interviewed between November 1971 and April 1972. They were asked about medical care in rural Washington, group practice, and the business organization and economic productivity of their practices. Some findings were: (1) Washington's rural areas had fewer physicians per capita than its urban areas; (2) there were hospitals without doctors; (3) many rural towns had physicians reaching ages when retirement or semiretirement is inescapable; (4) rural residents often resided many miles from the closest physician; and (5) more suggestions were made for improving medical care by increasing the number of personnel rather than reorganizing the present personnel into different types of practice arrangements. (NQ)