Military families: Have you heard about ICE? (And no, I’m not talking about Immigrations and Customs Enforcement!) I’m talking about the Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) used by the military to collect data and field complaints and compliments from everyday people like you and me.
The nice thing about the ICE system is that you can use it to report on any interaction with any command or unit and your report is viewed first by the leadership and administrators at the top and then it trickles down to the department heads and NCOs of the facility.
Where do I find ICE?
ICE is conveniently hosted online at https://ice.disa.mil/. When you’re in a Military Treatment Facility, you may also find kiosks or paper surveys that will allow you to report an interaction immediately. I recommend always filing your own ICE report electronically, to ensure that the report goes through the proper channels and not into the trash can.
I’m not a complainer – why would I use this?
This is going to sound crazy, but the ICE system exists so that you can report both good and bad things that happen in the facility. In my opinion, using this system to advocate for yourself is not complaining and does not make you a complainer.
I actually use the system to file more positive complaints than I use it to write negative ones — because I have more positive interactions when I use services on base than negative ones. If someone goes above and beyond for me or a member of my family, I want them to have some sort of recognition for the positive experience they went out of their way to give us, especially since we all know many of the base services do not have the best overall reputation. Many units and commands will give praise and/or rewards to their members that have positive reports filed by customers or patients, and I have seen those members be able to use positive data from reports on their evaluations as well. This is all the more reason to file positive ICE reports – you could indirectly help a servicemember obtain a promotion, medal, or a commendation letter simply by letting their command know how they positively helped you.
Further, when something terrible happens, this is simply one way to document the situation, especially if writing a letter is not your strong suit or going through an advocate isn’t an option. Using the online ICE form is also more comfortable since you can do it from the comfort of your home without initially contacting a person, which could be the difference between a victim of abuse, assault, or medical neglect from filing a complaint or letting it go. The form even allows you to opt-out of further contact by allowing you to be anonymous, but if something significant happened, it is recommended that you do provide your contact information so that the command takes your report seriously.
Reports are crucial.
The growth of a command relies heavily on reports – if people choose not to come forward with their experiences, either good or bad, a command will find it harder to experience growth in a positive direction. Feedback from patients and customers allows a command to know what their members are great at, and where they need to improve or when something goes seriously wrong.
As issues with our healthcare, housing, PCS experiences and more go public, commands are finally trying to make changes across the board because the issues families are facing are affecting mission readiness – no one wants to join the military or stay in the military when their family (or future family) is treated like garbage. By making ICE reports, we are able to report to commands to let them know if the changes they’re made are working, if there’s room for improvement, or if something is off their radar entirely. It’s easy to complain to a spouse group, but we need to start complaining and praising in the reports that matter — the ICE reports.
