1. How to undertake a Specialty review using Discovery
Explore Discovery
How to undertake a Specialty review using Discovery
(The functionality described will work in all other Discovery dashboards)

2. Summary This guidance document will cover:
How to access Specialty summary information for a range of indicators
How to benchmark activity/performance against other locations
How to extract information for sharing, if required
Links to showcased Dashboards
How to build a bespoke Discovery view and save it
How to create and set default views
How to navigate to your favourite Discovery dashboards
Discovery hints and tips

3. Discovery Dashboard - Level 1 Overview
This is the Discovery Level 1 Overview which groups indicators into the 6 dimensions of Quality as per the NHS 2020 vision.
This visualisation is intended to present a quick “temperature check” of the indicators for the organisation at a certain point in time, denoted by Red/Amber/Green (RAG) status.
By selecting a particular specialty the visualisation will update to show the indicators that are available at Level 1 for that specialty; a specialty summary
User can select a hospital
User can select residence or treatment based indicators
Hovering over a circle segment provides more information on that indicator (navigation links are also available)
Scorecard view provides a different view of this data

4. Discovery Dashboard - Level 1 Scorecard
This is the Discovery Level 1 Scorecard view which shows how a selected location compares to its peers across a range of indicators for the selected time period.
It is further broken down by specialty. It is possible to access more detailed information by hovering the cursor over a particular indicator.
User can select a specific hospital/location
User can chose to view the information for a particular specialty
Note: information for some indicators can be split by specialty at this level

5. Discovery Dashboard - Specialty Summary
Level 1 Overview
with a single Specialty selected
Level 1 Scorecard
with a single Specialty selected and shown by ‘Locations’

6. Level 1 Efficiency Overview – Treatment: Specialty view
Level 1 Efficiency Overview - Treatment: Group Overview
Clicking on a circle name (e.g. ‘Efficiency’) in the Level 1 Overview provides a link to a range of more detailed views for the associated indicators.
Indicators are listed down the left hand side. A circle for each peer is shown (coloured by RAG status), with the selected location being the large circle. Peer average Board and Scotland comparisons are also shown.
In this example Trauma & Orthopaedics has been selected
A time period has been selected (data are available for 3+ years)
A Health Board or specific location/hospital can be chosen
Monthly trend information is available (blue line) compared to the peer average (grey line)
The magnifying glass icon provides links to more detailed information
Hovering over the distribution or trend chart provides additional information

7. Level 1 Efficiency Overview – Indicator Summary Specialty view (Trauma & Orthopaedics)
This dashboard provides benchmarked information for a chosen location and compares it to its peer locations. At Board level this is all other Scottish Boards. For a specific hospital this will be its peer hospitals (similar size and specialty mix). Please note the ‘Location & Specialty’ tab allows a user to select a bespoke peer list from all Scottish hospitals.
Choose an indicator
Choose a time period
Choose a specialty (or multiple specialties) by clicking on the relevant bar. The dashboard will update accordingly.
The RAG bar chart provides benchmarked information for all peer locations.
Monthly trend chart provides information for the selection and its peer average.
Selecting ‘Within Board’ will allow comparisons between all locations within this Health Board area.
Information from any chart/table can be downloaded as required (as an image or as data/crosstab) please see slide 11 for further information.

8. Level 1 Efficiency Overview – Impact Analysis Specialty view (Trauma & Orthopaedics)
This dashboard provides Impact Analysis information, i.e. the change required for the selection to achieve the upper quartile figure of their peers.
Choose an indicator
The specialty bar chart will appear at the bottom of the view
This shows what each specialty needs to do to achieve the upper quartile rate
Although overall a location may be doing well, individual specialties may have opportunities for improvement
Choose a specialty (or multiple specialties) by clicking on the relevant bar. Dashboard will update accordingly
The indicator bar chart has now updated to show what this specialty needs to do to achieve the upper quartile rate for all the indicators shown
Users can hover over these bars for more information
The magnifying glass provides links to other dashboards with more detailed information

9. Level 1 Efficiency Overview – Location & Specialty Specialty view (Trauma & Orthopaedics)
This dashboard allows the user to select a bespoke group of Health Boards and/or hospitals for comparison.
Choose the Health Boards you wish to compare
This loads all the locations for these Boards into the ‘Location’ filter. Choose the locations you specifically wish to compare. Click ‘Apply’
Choose an indicator
Choose a time period
Select a specialty
The view will update to show information for the selected group of hospitals in both the top table and the bottom bar graph

10. Discovery Level 2 Information
Note: information for some indicators is standardised at Level 1. At Level 2, crude rates are shown and also the peer rate is based on the default peer list identified at Level 1.
In the Level 2/3 dashboards a user has access to diagnosis, procedure, GP practice and Consultant level information for their own Health Board, as well as a peer average and Scottish figure to compare against.

11. Level 2 Average length of stay (Specialty Spells) - Diagnosis Specialty view (Trauma & Orthopaedics)
This dashboard allows the user to compare specialty spell average LOS information by diagnosis, procedure, type of admission, consultant, GP practice & patient demography
Choose your Health Board and hospital
Choose the specialty, admission type and time period
Information is available by Diagnosis Chapter and Subchapter
These panels are dynamic, clicking on a bar/circle will update other charts and tables in this view
The bottom table provides activity, average LOS information and a peer comparison, by Diagnosis Code
Clicking on the ‘+’ symbol will show 4 digit diagnosis codes
To export the Diagnosis Table click on the table to make it active (ensure no individual diagnosis is highlighted), then Click on “Download” and select ‘Crosstab’, then select ‘Download’ to generate Excel output.
This download functionality can be used on any panel in Discovery. For charts, ‘Data’ may be a better option.

12. Level 2 Readmissions Treatment Specialty view (Trauma & Orthopaedics)
This dashboard allows the user to compare readmissions information by specialty, consultant, GP practice and patient demography. There is also some diagnosis and procedure level information.
Choose a Specialty and time period
Choose 7 or 28 day readmission rate
Choose your Health Board or hospital
The scatter plot and bottom table provides crude readmission rates by discharging consultant
User can view information by consultant or GP practice
This information can be downloaded and exported as required, please see previous slide.
There are a large number of indicators that have Level 2 Dashboards. This document has shown two examples. Please see the A to Z page which highlights all the information available in Discovery and provides links to specific dashboards.

13. Level 2 Consultant Dashboard Overview tab - Creating a consultant team view
This dashboard provides benchmarking and trend information on all treatment-based indicators at consultant level. Users can view information at diagnosis or procedure level. Consultant teams can be created and saved. Can potentially support consultant appraisal.
Select Health Board, Location and specialty as required.
This will restrict the list of GMC codes to just those with activity for these selections
Select the consultants by GMC number
User can type in GMC numbers within orange box to locate a specific consultant
Buttons to switch between Activity or Indicator based information
Click on a specific indicator to display the information in the bar chart at the bottom
Monthly Trend or Consultant views are available

14. Level 2 Consultant Dashboard Overview tab – Saving a bespoke view
When you have made all of your selections and wish to save the view you have created, click the “View: Original” button in the Discovery toolbar
This will open a ‘Save View’ box where you can save different views you have created. This means that you only need to make yours selection once and the view can be saved for future use.
Name your view and click ‘Save’, and it will be saved within your ‘My Views’. Click on the “View” button to access your saved views within this suite of dashboards
2. If you choose to make it your default. This means that this dashboard will always open to this selected default view. Do not ‘Make it Public’

15. Navigating to dashboards using Tableau bookmark functionality
There are a number of options for navigating to your favourite or most useful dashboards
You can use the Discovery/tableau bookmarking functionality. Once you are on a dashboard you want to bookmark, click on this star. The star will turn gold when selected
This then saves the Dashboard as one of your favourites and you can get to it from anywhere within the Discovery system by clicking on the Discovery Favourites star.
You can also use the Discovery A to Z Page to navigate to any view

16. Navigating to dashboards using internet favourites
You can also use the internet provider favourites option to bookmark and help navigate to useful Discovery dashboards
Once you are on a dashboard you want to save, use the internet bookmarking favourites to save this to your browser. Click on the “Favourite” button next to the address bar (this may be a star). Click ‘Add to Favourites’
A favourite box appears and the user can name the favourite, and choose/create a folder to save it in. And then click ‘Add’
The next time you go to your internet favourites list (by clicking on the internet star) the Discovery dashboard link will be there

17. Discovery Hints and Tips
The A to Z page : Highlights all the information available in Discovery and provides specific links to relevant views and dashboards
Tool Tips: Throughout Discovery if the user hovers their cursor over any of the charts or data points, a tool tip will appear with additional information
Custom Views: Within each dashboard area it is possible to save specific visualisations (Custom Views) incorporating any filter selections the user has made
Pause button: Clicking on the ‘Pause’ button allows users to make all of their filter selections at once rather than one at a time
Dynamic visualisations: Many of the dashboards in NSS Discovery are dynamic. This means that if you click on one area of a chart/table it will update the other areas/panels to reflect any choices/selections
Exporting data from Discovery: To export data, select the chart or table containing the information you wish to export (by clicking on it), then click on the button (normally located near the top right of the dashboard) and choose the format you wish the data to be exported in
Metadata: Detailed metadata is available via the orange head icon at the top right of all dashboards

18. For Discovery support and more information on accessing and using NSS Discovery, email us at:  or
visit our website:
nssdiscovery.scot.nhs.uk