Table S1.

Details of the unit costs assigned to health care resource use data

Variable	Unit cost (£)*	Sensitivity analyses
Cost of travela		±25%
Mean costs of hospital travel	88
Cost of surgeon		±25%
Mean salary/hourb	102
Surgeon outpatient consultation, 30 minutesc	69
Cost of hospital administrative personnelb	40
Cost of IT expertb	107
Cost related to sick leave		±25%
Governmental reimbursement of 1 day work absencei	83
Cost related to surgery		±25%
Cost of hernia surgery	1,119
Cost of cholecystectomy	1,961
Cost of sinus pilonidalis	817

Notes:

^*Exchange rate on June 29, 2012: 1 £ =9.36 NOK. http://www.dnb.no/en/currencylist?la=EN&site=DNB_NO

^apersonal communication (September 1, 2010) North Norwegian Health Administration (JN): 828 NOK per travel =88 £ per travel

^blocal data: Based on a mean salary of 102 £ (965 NOK)/hour for a hospital physician, and a mean salary for administrative personnel of 40 £. Data from hospital administration

^cNorwegian Health Authorities. Reimbursement and DRG weighting in Norwegian Hospitals 2012: http://www.helsedirektoratet.no/publikasjoner/regelverk-innsatsstyrt-finansiering-2012/Sider/default.aspx. 1 DRG weight: 38,209 NOK; Outpatient consultation (day and night-time): DRG 923, weight 0.017; Cost of hernia surgery: DRG 1,62O, weight 0.275: 1,119 £; Cost of cholecystectomy: DRG 4,94O, weight 0,482: 1,961 £; Cost of sinus pilonidalis: DRG 1,58O, weight 0,201: 817 £

ⁱEstimated from a median income of 276,000 NOK/year/patient as reported by Statistics in Norway: http://www.ssb.no/english/.

Abbreviations: DRG, Diagnoses Related Groups; JN, Jan Norum; NOK, Norwegian Kroner; IT, information technology.