CHIIPing away to improve our network security

It’s one year since the Critical Health ICT Infrastructure Program (CHIIP) began and the team has good reason to celebrate. CHIIP has officially finished a mammoth collaborative effort with our customers to ensure WA Health’s network is fully enabled for the Program’s full delivery over the next three years. 

CHIIP is a four-year HSS-led program to replace all WA Health’s Local Area Network (LAN) infrastructure at more than 450 sites to ensure the highest level of network security to protect patient records and business data. It will also improve network reliability, further enhance patient care and safety, and enable future digital initiatives. 

As well as undertaking the works needed for the upgrades, CHIIP Program Director Phil Cowin said a key priority for the Program has been to establish strong relationships with stakeholders. 
“A big limitation to driving necessary change is when those impacted don’t believe in, understand, or feel empowered with the change going on around them,” Phil explained. 
“So the CHIIP team has done a lot of work in our first year to connect with, communicate with and deliver avenues for feedback for both our HSS stakeholders and our customers in other health service providers (HSPs). 

“The benefits of taking the time to connect with stakeholders on a human level are clear already, with people throughout WA Health taking the initiative, and going above and beyond, to help champion any changes needed for the LAN upgrades.”

HSS Infrastructure Director and key stakeholder, Andrew Mulvey, explained that CHIIP has built strong, trust-based relationships by listening and responding to HSPs’ concerns and sharing responsibility for success. 

“By prioritising relationships with our customers, it is clear their ongoing collaboration is one of partnership – working together to make transformational change and, in doing so, making that change easier to implement,” Andrew said. 

“The CHIIP team has built a culture essential to success, one characterised by honesty, transparency, professionalism and respect for the views of others; and has been quick to adapt to changing circumstances and priorities in consultation with our customers. 

“The whole team is evidently very focused on achieving tangible outcomes and truly embody the HSS value, ‘we put the customers at the heart of what we do’.”  

In celebration of the first stage being completed, let’s take a look at some of the team’s incredible achievements so far: 

Procurement 

A huge body of work was undertaken in the first year to analyse requirements, assess cost and procure a managed service provider (MSP) to help implement the new LAN network infrastructure over the next three years and provide ongoing managed services. Contract awards are now underway and are expected to wrap up in coming months. 

Targeted Risk Mitigation (TRM) 

TRM was a key focus in the first year of the Program and was the only component of CHIIP that needed to be fully complete in mid-2024 to enable the next three years of works to go ahead. TRM focused on identifying and mitigating existing network security issues by: 

• Enabling Network Access Control (NAC) at specified small WA Health sites to help prevent unauthorised devices and equipment from connecting to our network. 
• Migrating all WA Health sites to segregated Wide Area Networks (WAN) using firewalls, enabling the detection and restriction of unauthorised traffic from moving through the network.
• Implementing Wi-Fi capability at select WA Health sites. 

Facilities Works (FW)  

While it will continue into the next three years of CHIIP, in its first year FW was focused on ensuring our network facilities are best prepared for the LAN uplift.  

To achieve this, one of the main priorities of FW this year was working with HSPs to audit all our WA Health computer and communications rooms and network racks; and commencing the planning and procurement for remediation works needed. In June 2024, the HSS State Distribution Centre became the first WA Health site to have network remediation works completed, meaning it is in the best position possible to support further CHIIP works over the next three years. 

The FW team also completed Wi-Fi mapping for all WA Health sites, which will be essential to enable a steady Wi-Fi connection for staff devices and medical equipment. 

Service Design and Transition (SD&T) 

The SD&T team spent stage one ensuring HSS will be fully prepared and appropriately resourced to transition to and support the new LAN services when the time comes. 

They began working with HSS Operations to assess what new positions and training our staff will need, along with identifying processes that will need to be re-designed or created to support the uplifted LAN. They also developed a framework to monitor, manage, and provide assurance over the new LAN service to ensure it delivers maximum value to WA Health. 

The SD&T team also played a key role in supporting TRM’s service transition needs. 

Having now completed the Program establishment and targeted risk mitigation stage of CHIIP’s delivery, CHIIP is now moving into the second and final stage. Expected to continue for the next three years, stage two will see the total uplift of and service transition to a more contemporary network infrastructure with managed services support.