By Cecilia Nasmith

The Northumberland PACE Talk series continues May 25, when Northumberland Hills Hospital Chief of the Emergency Department and Acute Services Dr. Paul Ketov presents ER 101 For Patients and Families via Zoom.

Sharing his passion for patient education, community outreach and collaborative communication with patients, Dr. Ketov will provide insight into the experience of visiting the Emergency Department – including the different roles of the health-care and allied health professionals a patient or caregiver might encounter.

He will offer a glimpse into triage, investigations, discharge and follow-up process, touching on wait times and how his team works on improving the patient experience. Attendees will come away with both tips on making an Emergency Department visit smoother and more efficient and with recommendations on effective collaboration with primary-care providers, specialists and community pharmacists after the visit.

In addition to his work in the NHH Emergency Department, Dr. Ketov is a recipient of several NHH Foundation Gifts of Gratitude, as well as the NHH Healing Hands Award. In recent years, he has been heavily involved as one of the leaders in establishing local COVID-19 protocols as they relate to Acute Care, and in integrating the new Epic Clinical Information System within the Emergency Department.

He is an Adjunct Professor at Queen's University and is passionate about clinical education, bedside teaching and evidence-based Emergency Medicine. He is an organizer, as well as occasional speaker, for the Internal Clinical Education and Rounds series colloquially known as Fireside Chats.

As per the standard PACE Talk format, questions from the audience will be addressed at this 5:30 p.m. program. These can be submitted prior to May 24 at mbhargava@imcare.ca.

PACE Talks (which stands for Personalized Assessment and Change Education) have been offered since 2018 as as free public-education sessions on a broad range of health and wellness topics, consistently drawing large groups of community members with a variety of questions and perspectives. Like many other events, the series adapted to a new virtual format as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These hour-long sessions consist of a 30-minute talk, a 20-minute question-and-answer period with the guest speaker, and a short moderator summary. Bring your questions, your suggestions and your experience, and join in on what is expected to be another informative discussion.

Pre-registration is required, with space limited to the first 300 to sign up at www.pacetalks.com – where you will find video and highlights from many of the previous season's talks.

The event is hosted through Zoom, and attendees will be asked to log in five minutes prior to the 5:30 p.m. Start time.

For those unable to attend, efforts will be made to share a recording of this conversation following the event (technology permitting).