About St Andrews

St Andrew’s Healthcare is a mental health charity that, for nearly 200 years, has provided care and support to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

While society has come a long way in recognising mental health, people with the most complex needs are still too often overlooked. This is where St Andrew’s steps in.

Working in partnership with the NHS and others, the charity provides specialist care to patients with the most complex mental health needs, supporting them to find hope and meet their goals.

A community and societal lifeline

As poor mental health continues to rise, the NHS, local authorities and the prison service are struggling to cope. As a result, vulnerable people with the most complex mental ill health are finding their needs are not consistently met because services are strained. 

One of the charity’s main priorities is growth and innovation, with a large focus on creating new services which will help people to live in the community.  

Delivering hyper personalised care that scales 

Due to the complexity and individual needs of each patient, the care provided is tailored to each person. St Andrew’s develops innovative ways to inspire hope and help patients transform their lives. At St Andrew’s there is a real focus on physical and spiritual wellbeing as well as mental health. 

Simon Callow, St Andrew’s Director of IT, said: “We want to help transform the lives of thousands of people who are often overlooked in our society. We want to support them to find a sense of self, connect with their community and live a better life. I’m proud to be a part of a charity which inspires hope among all those it cares for.”  

‘You really stood out’

Like any organisation should do when scouring the market for new software partners, St Andrew’s engaged with many vendors taking them through a thorough procurement process. In total, 65 potential partners were identified and scrutinised using the St Andrew’s evaluation matrix.

This helped the key decision makers to select OneAdvanced as their chosen partner, having looked closely at product functionality, implementation, sector knowledge, service and support commitments.

Victoria Webb, Head of Major Projects at St Andrew’s said: “OneAdvanced really stood out to us. They took the time to submit a very comprehensive reply to everything that was asked of them, beating some of the largest market leaders in the software space.”

Trusted partnership

Here at OneAdvanced, we truly value partnership. We strive to ensure that we listen, advise and learn from our customers. We take the time to understand the sectors we work in, and having such knowledge adds significant value to how we build their software and how we do business.

 Simon said: “There aren’t many organisations that fully understand the healthcare sector, and that’s a significant factor which led to us choosing OneAdvanced. We believe our partnership is critical to our mutual success.”

Ai, safe, trusted, secure

As artificial intelligence (AI) is now firmly embedded in most business sectors, St Andrew’s has already started using the platforms to its own advantage having sought out how it can benefit its staff and patients.  

This meant St Andrew’s fully embraced the OneAdvanced AI platform, which is the UK’s first sovereign private solution which is wholly designed for solving business problems without the risk of company information going public. An absolute vital component when dealing with patients’ medical records.

Simon said: “It was clear to me that OneAdvanced really cared and understood the importance of our data security. That reassurance we received made the decision to move the majority of our services over to them much easier.”

Ai has a profound power in care

Dr Nadeem Mazi-Kotwal, St Andrew’s Chief Clinical information Officer (CCIO), has also seen firsthand how AI can benefit the charity’s patients.

He said: “There is a huge variance on cognitive capabilities among our patients who have very complex mental health needs, which means the care plans we use during their journey with us can be very detailed. We are huge supporters of co-production, which means working with our patients to ensure we are all in agreement about their care recovery plan. But, due to the complexity of their health, some patients may struggle to engage with the level of detail that is sometimes included, which means they cannot understand their pathway.

“But, now we’ve started using AI which interprets these complex documents and turns it into a simple, easily digestible document for our patients, so they can fully understand their care plan. Since adopting this approach, patient understanding has increased and the collaboration between patient and the clinical teams has grown, resulting in an overall improved outcome for them.”