WA Health appoints new CIO from within

WA Health has appointed Jonathan Smith as its chief information officer after a brief stint as acting technology chief.

Jonathan Smith

Smith took the job at the department’s shared services arm, Health Support Services (HSS), on a permanent basis in December.

He had been HSS’ interim CIO since the departure of former chief Christian Rasmussen, who left the agency after less than 10 months in October.

Smith comes to the CIO role with four years’ experience at HSS, most recently as its executive director for program delivery.

The role saw him accountable for $250 million in IT projects, including the state-wide integrated HR management information system overhaul.

The department recently named Deloitte the system integrator for the HRMIS project, with HR, payroll and rostering system software to be provided by SAP.

Before becoming program delivery director in February 2021, Smith spent nine months as acting WA Health CIO following the departure of Holger Kaufmann.

He has also previously worked at Bankwest, WA government-owned electricity provider Western Power, grain exporter CBH Group, Lloyds Bank and UK insurer Aviva.

A spokesperson for HSS told iTnews that Smith had developed a “strong understanding of the WA Health ICT landscape” since joining the agency in 2017.

The spokesperson said his leadership had enabled the “successful completion” of projects like HealthNext, the state’s voluntary assisted dying information management system, and SafeWA.

As CIO, Smith will take charge of HSS’ yearly operational IT spend of $140 million and more than 400 staff.