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Show ACTION LINEEXT. 77000 Acute Care Clinic not ready to go I Jk would like to know what good the Acute Care Clinic at the hospital really is? My child was very ill with sore ears. I couldn't get him into pediatrics and the Acute Care Clinic told me to use the emergency room. I thought the Acute Care Clinic was made to avoid minor things like this going to the emergency room. It's very frustrating when you have sick children and can't even get an appointment at 10 in the morning for the Acute Care Clinic. First, they tell us not to use the emergency room and then they tell us we can't use the Acute Care Clinic either. What do we do? li il 4 The Acute Care Clinic did experience some start-uproblems during its first week of in October. At that time, some Acute operation Care Clinic appointments were bookable by the appointment desk and some reserved for the emergency room. This was designed to allow patients coming to the Emergency Room to be referred to acute care. When you called the appointment desk, the appointments available were already filled. That is why you were told that there were no appointments. Yet, there were available appointments when you came to the ER. ' The hospital now allows all Acute Care Clinic appointments to be booked by either central appointments or the ER. You were right, however, in being referred to the emergency room. If you cannot get a same-daappointment or an acute clinic appointment and feel that emergency care is indeed required, by all means visit the emergency room. The hospital staff says the new clinic appears to be operating well now and apologizes for the frustration and inconvenience their start-uproblems caused. Thanks for your input. non-emergen- p cy y p Fund-rais- Q er goes door-to-do- or have a complaint about the youth acr for the youth tivities center I fund-raise- football league. Why are they asking them to sell candy bars when they send out a letter to remind us that no salesmen are allowed on base? I think it's important to have projects, but couldn't they come up with a fundraiser that would be as good for the kids who live on base as those who live off base? door-to-do- or fund-raisin- g il rl The youth center's fund-raise- was a r volunteer program. In the letter that was sent to all coaches and athletes, it was explained they were not obligated to participate. The sellyouth were also reminded that ing was not permitted on base. Many of the youth who live on base went through surrounding neighborhoods and sold their candy within an hour. Others received permission to sell their candy out in front of stores in the community. As for choosing to sell candy, the youth center was excited about how successful this program had been for other people. Selling candy was a way to generate funds in a short period of time. r and the This was a good, quick such well. as sellyouth responded ing candy, are necessary to keep the costs of our programs down. door-to-do- or fund-raise- Fund-raiser- s, Advertisement misleading One of the insurance advertisements in the Hilltop Times gives the impression that the company is a government employees insurance company. They wouldn't insure my vehicle, but another company gladly picked up full coverage. What's the deal? How can the company use military endorsements so fluently when they're not willing to insure military members? After looking at one of the company's l vertisements, I believe it does appear they are publicizing themselves as military insurance J! ad-in- experts. They very well may be knowledgeable on the unique aspects of military lifestyles and what military members require in insurance coverage. What you should realize, however, is that each company has its own underwriting requirements. The company you couldn't get insurance with could have different requirements from the company that you did get insurance with. Being military wouldn't automatically assure your eligibility, especially if you don't meet these requirements. Thanks for the call. H.l:tcp Times Nov. 8, 1991 11 Will this survey be used to ferret out and des- - ACTION' LINE is your opportunity to make Hill AFB a better place to live, vork and play. When you call Ext. 77000, ... .. uum, mum i.mimniuw or send on LOGDIS or Ortice Vision to ID "ACTION," your comments will be recorded and stalled through the agency responsible tor action. Please gie your and chain of command the opportunity to work with you in ansu questions and soh ing problems before calling er-m- ACTION g LINE. This will help me better serve your interests through ACTION start doing. Demonstrate by your actions that you are committed and I will listen. You ask, "What is the one thing that I would like to see you do to LINE. Moj. Gtn. Dolt W. Thompson Jr. Ogden ALC commander Kudos I called the operations officer, Capt. Cristen DeYoung, about a sentry closing the gate a couple of minutes early. To my pleasant surprise, he handled my complaint in a very professional and thorough manner. He investigated the issue and made a policy, stressing a total quality approach that security police are trying to enforce. He addressed the issue to the airman involved and reported back to me regarding the actions he had taken. Instead of feeling bad, I came away feeling very good about the professionalism of the security police and particularly DeYoung. I just wanted to say thanks. appreciate you taking the time to acknowledge the outstanding job done by DeYoung. He is the kind of individual you can count on to solve any problem to the satisfaction of all concerned. Your comments will be passed on to him by his commander in the appropriate forum. Again, thank you for your comments. Fear of reprisal over TQM survey have a question concerning the Total Management Survey. It says the answer sheet, written comments and survey envebook should be sealed in the and mailed. received lope you We didn't receive a envelope. All we received was a blank envelope which we were asked to use to turn them back into our QI pre-address- pre-address- troy managers, workers, and organizations that are deficient? Will it be used to beat people o er the head? If so, you will have a tragedy, because the problem with poor TQM is you and the other senior managers, both here and at Headquarters Air Force Logistics Command. Yes, you believe in TQM and you preach TQM. But these are just empty words. You do not apply what you preach. Do you apply statistical process control to your own workload? I doubt it. Do you stay in touch with your employees? Definetly not. Do you show leadership rather than administrative skill?' None that I can see. Do you have my best interests at heart? No. So if you want to improve TQM at Ogden, stop preaching and ed supervisors. Do they plan to open them, check our comments and then just send on to you only what they want you to see? Shouldn't we be allowed to send them directly to the Directorate of Quality, and how does QP plan to sanitize our surveys so management will not recognize who wrote it? I appreciate your concern regarding the TQM survey. During the collection process, several directoratesorganizations did establish a central office for collection of the surveys. Because of time constraints, they thought this would speed up the process. Your particular division chose not to make preaddressed envelopes, but to gather the surveys and turn them in collectively as a division. Your management supports this survey and had no intention of compromising this program by screening individual replies. The survey must be honest and uncompromised in order to establish a true base line. You are welcome to mail your survey directly to QP since you feel uncomfortable about it going through your division. Workers from QP will type the written portion so no person or organization can be identified by the handwriting or the message. The message and the "language" will not be changed. Employee wants to talk I appreciate the opportunity to partici- pate in the Total Quality Management Survey because I also believe in the value of TQM. I do not, however, believe in sanitizing messages. This has been one of the great roadblocks that has prevented us from effectively using TQM. This and fear. make TQM work here at Hill?" I would like to see you become more actively engaged with your employees. How many of us have actually seen you? How many of us have actually talked with you? Not many I would guess. Your only contact with your employees is at briefings and official meetings. The information that we give you is heavily censured and controlled. You must get out of your office if you want to know what is going on. You should: 1) Go for a walk through one of the buildings every week. Go alone and talk to people. Don't take a gaggle of managers with you. Listen to us. We're on your side. 2) Have your secretary arrange a weekly lunch at the Hill Officers Club. Randomly invite a group of workers, supervisors, and managers to lunch and discuss TQM issues. Listen and act. Call an employee daily and have a chat. 3) Tms survey is proof that you don't know what is going on at Hill. If you practiced management by walking around, you wouldn't need the survey. Well, it's time to get involved and do something. Don't preach to me anymore; I don't need it. Show me instead. I welcome your inquiry about the TQM Baseline Survey. This survey will not be used to destroy anyone or beat people over the head. That is why people were instructed to NOT put their names on them. The surveys are to measure where we are today in the TQM process. We cannot tell if we are improving if we don't measure where we are presently. The survey allows us to establish this as of October 1991, and in the eight criteria areas. This survey also is one way for me to hear directly from each of you. I plan to use TQM concepts with my directors, and I hope they will follow my example. Once I have read the written comments, I plan to quietly discuss these with the individual managers. Each directorcommander will use the concerns and ideas to establish future plans. Finally, I have and will continue to meet with employees at all levels. I intend to increase my visibility in the workplace and to discuss important issues with individuals and groups. While I don't agree with some of your conclusions, I do appreciate your inputs. That's what our Quality Program is all about. Thanks for the call. Illegal drug activity It was that when a in illegal found was be to involved person drug activities on or off the base, they would be removed from federal service at Hill AFB. We have an individual working in our area who is facing drug charges and he is still working here. Do the same rules apply to everybody or is there an exception to the rules? Cases involving illegal drug activities are reviewed on a basis applying all existing policies and drug program guidance. It is true, however, that most involvement results in removal from federal service. As to any particular case, the Privacy Act precludes discussing any specific facts or circum stances or any contemplated actions. Please rest assured that any case involving illegal drug use or dealing will be thoroughly investigated, with appropriate action taken. my. understanding case-by-cas- e |
