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 access trend information to see if performance is changing
How to identify potential productive opportunities
How to compare LOS distributions for hospitals and Scotland
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 (Treatment) Overview
This is the Discovery Level 1 Overview (Treatment) :- Health Board Overview which groups a number of indicators together in 1 Dashboard View
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.
Select a Health Board. The view updates to show this selection as the larger dot.
Hovering your mouse over locations on the right hand side highlights their values in the visualisation
Scotland and Health Board Values shown on the left hand side
Hovering over a data point (dot) brings up a tool tip that displays additional information.
Choosing a Specialty provides a specialty review for those indicators that are split by specialty

4. Discovery Dashboard – Detailed Indicator View
If you click on any of the indicators from the previous screen. A detailed indicator view is opened. This provides:-
Benchmarking information for the selected location against peers
Trend chart for the full 3+ years of information in Discovery against a Peer average (blue line selected location)
Year on Year % change chart which shows % change in performance against same month previous year
Specialty Split. Identifies how each specialty is performing against their peer average rate
Darker colour of the bar identifies those specialties with more volume.
Arrow provides a link to more detailed indicator dashboards
Choosing a specialty provides this information by specialty.

5. Discovery Dashboard - Specialty Summary
Level 1 Overview:- Detailed Indicator View:- Single specialty selected.
Visualisation updated to show performance for this specific specialty
Level 1 Overview:- with a single Specialty selected
Note the Indicators have reduced as some indicators at this level are not split by this specialty.

6. Level 1 Location Overview – Treatment: Within Board View
Clicking on the location overview provides a similar view to the Health Board overview but now the user can select a specific location / hospital.
The Peer View (1) will provide information for the selected location against it’s peer hospitals, which will be listed on the right hand side (2).The ‘Within Board’ function (1) provides comparisons for all locations within that health board.
In this example the ‘within board’ option is shown.
In this example General Surgery has been selected
A time period has been selected
A Health Board or specific location/hospital can be chosen
Location, Board and Scotland comparisons shown, (note in Peer view a peer average rate are also shown)
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.
As before clicking on an indicator will open the detailed indicator view for this location.
Summary
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), if ‘Peer’ functionality is chosen (1)
‘Within Board ‘Functionality provides comparison for all hospitals within the Health Board
The ‘Custom Peer’ tab allows a user to select a bespoke peer list from all Scottish hospitals.

7. Level 1 Treatment Overview –Impact Analysis Specialty view (General Surgery)
Level 1 - Impact Analysis:- 7 day Readmissions
Choose Financial Year/Specialty as Required
Choose Absolute or Relative View. Absolute View provides activity change required to meet Peer UQ. Relative View provides percentage change required to meet Peer UQ.
Click on an Indicator. The Impact Analysis Box populates as does the bottom time trend or specialties Graph
Impact Analysis Info Box shows overall change required for time period to meet either the UQ or Target Rate. Also shown is the distribution of the peer locations and links are provided to additional dashboards
Choose Time Trend or Specialties. Time trend shows activity changes over time compared to UQ or Target rate. Specialties option shows which specialties is meeting the target or the UQ of their peers
 The Time Trend highlights that if the gap/bar is getting bigger over time this means this locations performance is getting further away from the UQ rate of their peers.
Tool Tips will provide further information when the user hovers the cursor over the visualisations.

8. Level 1 (Treatment) Overview – Custom Peers Specialty view (General Surgery)
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 a time period
Choose an Indicator
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

9. Level 1 Overview – CSV Download Specialty view (General Surgery)
The CSV download functionality allows a user to download relevant information for all of the indicators.
If you just want the information for 1 specialty and 1 location make appropriate selections on the filters, if you would like all Scottish HB and Location information (depending on the CSV tab) leave location filter at ‘Choose Location’ and Specialties filter at ‘All Specialties’
Click on the CSV Button
A Dialogue box will open:- Click Open
A CSV document opens with a download of a variety of information which can be manipulated as required.
This function allows users to create bespoke peer groups as required. Information available for all indicators locations and specialties.

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 – Hospital Spells Analysis Dashboard Workbook view:- Procedure/Consultant Tab
 What are the high volume procedures for my hospital/specialty?
How Does the LOS distribution across my HB hospitals compare to each other and Scotland for specific procedures/diagnosis?
The Hospital Spell Analysis Dashboard answers these questions and others.
This view shows high volume procedures by either Hospital Spells or Bed days. User can filter for Admission Type, Specialty, Procedure etc. 
This shows that the an elective procedure that leads to a lot of Bed days is W40 Knee Joint replacement (cement)
LOS distribution comparisons available across hospitals within this health board and Scotland. Within the hospital tab
Similar information available for Diagnosis’ in this dashboard.

15. 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’

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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. Some dashboards also have CSV download options.
Metadata: Detailed metadata is available via the orange head icon at the top right of all dashboards

19. For Discovery support and more information on accessing and using NSS Discovery, email us at:  or
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