Published: 04/20/2021
Gannon University Center for Business Ingenuity
Gannon University is hosting a Zoom webinar titled, “2021 Life in Isolation: What Did We Learn from a Healthcare Perspective?” at 7 p.m. today. The event is free and open to the public.
This virtual webinar explores how our lives have been forever changed over the last year by COVID-19. From toilet paper shortages, to constant hand washing and sanitizing, to being unable to see loved ones. Virtually everyone has been impacted, and it’s left many of us asking questions about the future, such as: When is the next pandemic? What worked in our response to COVID-19? What did not? How deadly will the next international communicable disease be?
Join us virtually to explore how health care organizations – and the agencies that regulate them – prepared or did not prepare and what they need to do before the next pandemic. How did our health agencies respond, and how can we utilize these resources for a more consistent, targeted, effective response in the future? Can we set aside the divisive politics of COVID-19 to better serve and provide the tools the common person needs to help reduce or control the impact of the next deadly communicable disease?
Panelist include Gannon’s George Couch, DHA and UPMC’s Jason C. Fisher ’20, DNP. The host and moderator is Gannon’s Rick Stachel, D.Sc.
Register in advance at: https://www.gannonalumni.org/event/LifeInIsolation
About the Panelists:
Presenter George Couch, DHA is an assistant professor and executive in residence for graduate and undergraduate healthcare administration at Gannon University’s Dahlkemper School of Business. Couch received his Doctorate in Healthcare Administration and Leadership from the Medical University of South Carolina, Master in Business Administration from West Virginia University, and Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies at Bethany College, W.Va. His professional background includes serving as chief executive officer of Wetzel County Hospital in New Martinsville, W.Va; president and chief executive officer of Ohio Valley Health Services and Education Corporation in Wheeling, W.Va.; vice president of Wheeling Hospital in Wheeling, W.Va.; and he was the owner and administrator of New Martinsville Health Care Center in New Martinsville, W.Va. He is a fellow of the American College of Health Care Executives, a Health Care Financial Management Association member, and a licensed nursing home administrator.
Presenter Jason C. Fisher ’20 DNP began his health care career in 2007. While attending nursing school he started working as a security guard at UPMC Hamot Medical Center and transitioned to being a nursing aid in the Medical Intensive Care Unit. He started his nursing career in the emergency department and later worked in the Trauma/Cardiac intensive care unit, or ICU. While in graduate school to become a nurse practitioner, he worked in the emergency/critical care float pool. In 2015, Fisher graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with his Doctorate in Nursing Practice. He completed his Master in Healthcare Administration from Gannon University in August 2020. In addition to working at UPMC Hamot and UPMC Chautauqua, Fisher is a Major in the United States Air Force
serving as a Nurse Practitioner at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio. He is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Fisher was deployed to New York City as part of the military response to support the city’s coronavirus surge. He worked on the front line as a registered nurse caring for patients at the Javits Center and in a makeshift ICU at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. After returning to UPMC Hamot at the beginning of June 2020, he has continued to support COVID-19 operations as a direct patient care provider and hospital administrator.
Host and moderator Rick Stachel, D.Sc. is an assistant professor of healthcare administration and business at Gannon University, and director of the Master of Healthcare Administration program. He has a broad career background in industry, health care and higher education. Prior to joining Gannon, Stachel was a marketing intelligence director at Philips Healthcare, where he managed a team of researchers involved in developing and launching medical devices in the respiratory space. Before that, he managed a similar team at Thermo Fisher Scientific, one of the world’s leading companies supplying laboratory equipment to research scientists at government, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Stachel has also worked in economic development, specifically in foreign direct investment for the British government and in business planning for small to medium sized businesses through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He started his career as a broadcast journalist.
Stachel has a doctorate in information systems from Robert Morris University, and an MBA in International Business from Point Park.