Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

The aim of a healthy post‐peak Bloomington should be to:
• Create a resilient health care system which provides care that is more affordable
and which minimizes the need for energy‐intensive interventions and support
systems;
• Increase the flexibility and range of responses available to local health care
providers; and
• Support a concentration of essential medical services to remain in the central city
location accessible by public transit and pedestrians.
MITIGATION GOALS & STRATEGIES
This discussion is offered as guidance and direction for policy and public discussion. Few of
these recommendations involve action steps for City government.
1. Expand and support alternative health care options as set out above.
2. Create a mobile medical corps: for both house calls and disaster responses.
3. Encourage more nurse practitioners: they can perform many of the same
procedures as a doctor, but their training is less expensive and timeconsuming.
Offices could be sited in more neighborhoods.
4. Consider how to create community­level health insurance to include a wide
range of therapeutic modalities.
5. Bloomington will still need a hospital.
a) Maintain the present downtown location of Bloomington Hospital;
b) Build dormitory facilities for short­term use by hospital employees to
mitigate against transportation problems;
c) Expand the re­use of medical equipment, where appropriate and
protective of health: reinstate the use of autoclave equipment; 247 and
d) Prepare to manage intermittent power outages.
• Increase on­site fuel storage and
• Provide employee training in low­energy diagnoses needing only
low­tech tools and materials.
247 Equipment used to sterilize equipment at high temperatures.
Report of the Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force 211