{"id":5463,"date":"2018-10-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prd-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/?p=5463"},"modified":"2025-02-03T19:09:28","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T19:09:28","slug":"kent-clinic-bridges-language-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/kent-clinic-bridges-language-barriers\/","title":{"rendered":"MultiCare Kent Clinic bridges language barriers to serve one of the most diverse communities in the state","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

MultiCare Kent Clinic<\/a> bridges language barriers to serve one of the most diverse communities in the state<\/p>\n

Russian. Spanish. Arabic. Punjabi. Somali. For providers and staff at the MultiCare Kent Clinic, communicating with patients in any of these languages and many more is just another day at the clinic.<\/p>\n

Kent, according to a 2017 report, is the third-most diverse midsize city in the country, and by far the most diverse in the state. In 2018 alone, nearly 2,000 patient appointments in the clinic have been conducted so far in languages other than English.<\/p>\n

The diversity of the patients has given the Kent clinic a unique challenge in bridging communication barriers to provide care across such a broad spectrum of languages and cultures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people come in who have been in the country for three days and come to get their kids immunized for school. That\u2019s the kind of situation we are faced with on a regular basis,\u201d says Kathy Dickman, MultiCare Kent Family Practice clinic supervisor.<\/p>\n

With such an array of languages, keeping a staff of in-person translators simply isn\u2019t feasible. Using telephonic translations also proved to be challenging in many cases because of the lack of visual and cultural context.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been a very diverse community and has gotten more diverse over the last few years,\u201d says Hilton Chen, MD, a family practice physician who started at the clinic in 2002.<\/p>\n

Although Chen says that in-person translators would be the optimal solution, they simply aren\u2019t feasible for such a broad variety of languages and cultures. This has led the clinic to rely on two key approaches to communicate effectively.<\/p>\n

For one, the composition of the clinic\u2019s staff has evolved into highly diverse mix over the years. In fact, multiple providers specifically sought out the opportunity to help care for such a broad group of patients.<\/p>\n

Mojgan Mohandesi, MD<\/a>, is a family practice doctor at the clinic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw different types of clinics but I liked it here because I like the multicultural aspect,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are interconnected with different cultures here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen says having multilingual providers with cultural connections helps the patients build trust and form bonds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey come to the providers who can relate to them, and often refer their friends and family members,\u201d Chen says. \u201cWord of mouth is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millicent Mbue, originally from Kenya, is an advanced registered nurse practitioner at the clinic. She says \u201conce the patient sees or understands that they are from the same country, then there is an instant connection.\u201d She adds that having similar cultural backgrounds with patients helps her and other providers provide culturally appropriate care for patients.<\/p>\n

But a diverse provider base isn\u2019t a complete solution when dealing with such a broad array of languages, and that\u2019s where technology comes in. The clinic leverages the In Demand video translation service, which uses a California-based pool of interpreters with basic medical backgrounds to connect patients and providers with the click of a button.<\/p>\n

Multiple rooms in the clinic have been outfitted with dedicated monitors and cameras to allow patients and translators to see each other. The service provides a menu of more than 100 languages (including sign language), and translators can be selected from either gender, which helps the staff provide culturally appropriate care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe select a language and a gender and a face pops up on the screen on the wall \u2014 it\u2019s like they are in the room,\u201d Dickman says.<\/p>\n

Although patient populations across the system may not be as diverse as in Kent, MultiCare is still looking to the Kent Clinic\u2019s solution as a model for the future as community makeups continue to change.<\/p>\n

And as the Kent Clinic prepares to move into its new building in January 2019, the number of rooms equipped with the translation setup will be greatly expanded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never want to risk missing important information because of translations. I couldn\u2019t live with that,\u201d Dickman says.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MultiCare providers find innovative ways to provide culturally competent care to one of the most diverse populations in the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMultiCare Kent Clinic bridges language barriers to serve one of the most diverse communities in the state - MultiCare Vitals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/kent-clinic-bridges-language-barriers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MultiCare Kent Clinic bridges language barriers to serve one of the most diverse communities in the state - 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