ZipClinic is using a translation service to assist in patient visits at its Bowling Green, Kentucky, center where providers are helping care for hundreds of new refugees each year.

Using an Iphone on speaker (in a HIPAA-compliant area), staff at the urgent care can communicate with patients who are resettling from countries with obscure dialects. In the past month providers there have seen many patients from Myanmar (formerly Burma), for example, who speak dialects such as Karen, Karenn, and Zomi.

The center has also seen refugee patients from Cuba, Somalia, and the Sudan. In Bowling Green there are about 350 new refugees resettled each year. Nationwide an estimated 1.2 million immigrants move into the U.S. each year.

OPI, the translation service provider for ZipClinic, offers 200 languages through its immediate call interpretation.

“ZipClinic currently provides the initial two-part physical that is a requirement as part of the resettlement process,” said Suzy Buck, spokeswoman for ZipClinic. “We then can offer primary care ongoing with the interpretation service. And, if prescriptions are needed we can have the interpreter explain dosage and follow-up care needed.”

Staff at ZipClinic have gone through additional training on some of potential background situations this population has experienced, to help them provide appropriate care.