Texas waitlist for state hospital beds tops 2,500 as lawmakers weigh a deadline
The reporting, first published by KXAN, puts the waitlist at 2,545 and notes it had plateaued for five months. Only about two-thirds of the state's roughly 2,500 hospital beds were usable, mostly because of staffing, and average stays lengthened sharply between 2019 and 2022.
Proposals included House Bill 479 setting a 21-day transfer deadline and a Williamson County jail-based program slated for spring. An attorney who works on the issue said the state's plan would take years to pay off while seriously ill people stay in jail.
The piece captures the record-level backlog just before the 2023 legislative session.
Source: Thousands are waiting in jail for state hospital beds. Is help coming? — USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism (originally published by KXAN), by David Barer, CHJ Fellow
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