In summary
- SA Health has issued an RFI seeking ideas for a future Digital Workplace Services model.
- Its environment spans 46,000 end-user devices, 16,000+ mobile phones and tablets, 15,000 networked printers and 70,000 user accounts across more than 450 locations.
- Complexity is compounded by non-standardised Local Health Networks, more than 2,550 generic accounts, and geographic constraints.
SA Health has gone to the IT managed services market for ideas on running its digital workplace, issuing a request for information (RFI) as it shapes a future Digital Workplace Services model for what it describes as a large, complex and highly distributed digital environment.
It says it is interested in approaches that enable a digital workplace which is intuitive, seamlessly integrated and designed to reduce unnecessary complexity, constraints and friction within clinical and operational workflows.
The information gathered will help SA Health shape future procurement strategies and define a Digital Workplace Services model fit for both current and future needs - making this a market sounding rather than a live procurement.
The scale of the estate is considerable. SA Health puts its environment at roughly 46,000 end-user devices, 16,162 mobile phones and tablets, 15,000 networked printers and 70,000 user accounts across more than 450 locations, including remote communities and mobile clinical services.
A considerable proportion of devices are shared clinical workstations, which the agency says complicates user management, security and policy enforcement, and mobile devices are currently managed across both legacy and modern platforms, with migration to modern platforms underway.
Geography is a defining constraint. SA Health operates facilities across vast areas - it cites Oodnadatta, more than 1,000 kilometres from Adelaide - where onsite support has to account for travel time, limited infrastructure, satellite communications, off-road access and narrow service windows when clinics operate only periodically.
SA Health also flagged a requirement for round-the-clock technical support at critical regional and all metropolitan sites, where service interruptions can have immediate patient-care impacts.
Adding to the complexity, the digital workplace is non-standardised across the state’s Local Health Networks (LHNs), each of which may run distinct operating-system configurations and device requirements shaped by legacy applications, contractual obligations and varying operating models - variations SA Health expects to persist in the medium term.
The environment also leans heavily on shared devices and more than 2,550 generic accounts used for patient journey boards, wayfinding and check-in kiosks, and emergency-department and inpatient devices - workflows that need immediate access without repeated logins, but which the agency says create security and compliance challenges and complicate synchronisation with cloud-based identity platforms.
Remote users, meanwhile, face constraints including no self-service password reset and limited access to technical support.
SA Health says it is enhancing its identity model by moving to a zero-trust framework to strengthen security and better protect patient data, and that it is building on an established Electronic Medical Record and digital clinical foundation toward more advanced clinical decision support.
The RFI closes at 2:00pm on 21 September 2026.
Digital Health, the division of SA Health responsible for providing and maintaining the ICT that supports the state’s healthcare system, issued an RFI in June to identify tooling solutions to support its alignment to the SACSF Version 2.0, a week after issuing an RFQ for an Enterprise Architecture Management System to provide a single and accurate view of digital assets.
