Have you used ICE today?
Do you know what ICE is?
ICE is the Integrated Customer Evaluation system, which was put in place to allow users to provide feedback on services and programs they use. Here is an article from 2006 about the Ft Campbell ICE system and it’s purpose.
ICE is a wonderful, underused program. While it has its limits, it is vital that we provide programs and activities with both negative and positive feedback. How else are they going to have a chance at meeting our needs?
The Department of Defense and Department of the Army have put a tremendous amount of money into the programs and resources that are available on Army posts for the benefit of soldiers and soldiers’ families. Now, all of us know that those programs and resources are not always accessible, often have serious customer service issues, or other problems. Because of the bureaucratic nature of the Army, those issues are frequently allowed to continue unaddressed. ICE is one way that you can be sure there is at least a record of the issue.
I have used ICE in several ways. At a previous post, I had the single worst Doctor’s appointment of my life. I was in my second trimester and at my OB appointment had asked to see the results of the thyroid tests they were supposed to be running regularly because of a history of low thyroid. The Doctor gave me the runaround for several minutes before essentially telling me that I did have low thyroid numbers but *he* did not consider that dangerous and while he could give me a low dosage of Synthyroid, it would just be to “shut me up”. By the end of the appointment, I was so angry I was in tears and called my husband. We went down to the Patient Advocacy office and filed a complaint…….and nothing happened. Four days later, I made another complaint via ICE, left my contact information and asked that I be contacted as soon as possible. Over the course of the next few days, I discovered that the Dr in question had mixed up my chart with another patients chart and was making his recommendations based on someone else’s blood results. My ICE complaint was directed to the CO of the hospital and he met with me, listened to my concerns, and personally put through my referral to an off post OB, with whom I had a wonderful experience. Until I utilized ICE, I was being bounced around from one department to another, being told that there was nothing they could do and the OB department head would not approve my referral off post. The ICE complaint helped me to identify the best person to talk to and forced them to address the issue.
I have also used ICE when I have had positive experiences. There are a couple of ladies who work at our post hourly care who are simply wonderful. When Monkey was having weight issues and was on a high calorie diet, they were fabulous about working with me. I used ICE to let their supervisors all the way up the chain know that they were doing their job wonderfully and how much I appreciated the facility.
Now, note that I’m talking about handling genuine complaints and issues. If we clog the system with bonus complaints that are impossible to handle (like that we would like for every program to be free and available 24 hours a day), it invalidates all the good it can do. But, if we provide on point, useful feedback, ICE can help each installation measure what programs are worth the money and resources. If a little tweaking (in a reasonable way) would make a program much more beneficial for you, why not let them know? It might lead to a change!
I know that I often feel like I have so little control- over where we live, when we move, our schedule and so forth. ICE offers the Army community a way to have an active voice in the usage of resources on their installation.
Find your voice. Be heard. If you’re not part of the solution, what are you part of?
Want some links?
To utilize ICE, you choose the service provider you would like to provide feedback about. That will take you to a survey to fill out. I have been told that if you have a concern/problem with a service, it is far more likely to be addressed if you leave your contact information so that they can get in touch with you and clarify any points that might need to be addressed. I have never had any negative impact from a program in doing this- I have had one really negative experience with the manager of a program resenting that I brought up an issue but that is personal on her part.
