Political Points<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n UTSW is the clear top contender to run the Dallas facility, throwing its hat back in the ring alongside two other applicants \u2014 neither of which expressed interest in running the entire facility. <\/p>\n Recovery Solutions, which runs a mental health facility in Montgomery County, north of Houston, submitted information to run the entire facility as requested but prefers to run only the adult wing of the hospital, according to its proposal. <\/p>\n The company is the nation\u2019s largest provider of inpatient behavioral health services on behalf of public entities, company officials said in a statement. Recovery Solutions has more than 25 years of experience partnering with government agencies in 11 states. The company has operated state hospitals for civilly committed patients since 1998, and forensically committed patients since 2005.<\/p>\n \u201cWe currently manage approximately 2,700 state hospital and residential treatment beds across the country,\u201d the statement said. \u201cAcross all programs, Recovery Solutions brings deep expertise, proven experience, and a long-standing commitment to helping government partners meet the behavioral health needs of their patients and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n The third bidder is Desiree Williams Consulting, a private leadership consultant applying to be a subcontractor but not offering to run the facility.<\/p>\n UTSW officials said in a statement they were proud of their involvement in standing up the hospital, which will be the first state acute-care psychiatric hospital serving North Texas communities and \u201cadvance the shared goals of increasing access to care and improving patient outcomes statewide.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe appreciate the thoughtful consideration by the Legislature and HHSC as they evaluate options for managing and operating this new behavioral health hospital,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWith construction nearly complete \u2014 and subject to guidance from state leaders in collaboration with HHSC \u2014 UT Southwestern stands ready and eager to assume responsibility for operating this state-of-the-art facility and delivering essential behavioral health services to Texans in need.\u201d<\/p>\n The deadline for the bids was Nov. 18. A decision is due in April but expected much more quickly \u2014 as the facility on the corner of Harry Hines Boulevard and Medical Center Parkway is nearly complete and ready to start being staffed as early as January. An actual opening will have to await several more months of ramping up services and staffing, human services officials have said. <\/p>\n Portions of the new psychiatric hospital under construction on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Dallas.<\/p>\n Christine Vo \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n The news that UTSW is back in the running was anticipated by Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, who has expressed concern that interruption in the plan, hatched in 2021<\/a>, to have UTSW helm the critically needed facility not only delayed the hospital\u2019s opening, but threatened the ability of the facility to give top-notch care directed by experts. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be realistic about what things cost and what you\u2019re going to get for those things,\u201d Jenkins said in November. \u201cI\u2019m not saying HHSC couldn\u2019t run their own hospital, but you\u2019ve already got a proven track record of successful hospitals in Dallas under the auspices of UT Southwestern. Why wouldn\u2019t you want to use that strength, that the state\u2019s already paid for, to run this \u2014 as opposed to having someone for whom it is not their core mission try to do this for the first time?\u201d <\/p>\n The UTSW plan \u201cwas designed to be really an incredible facility,\u201d said Jenkins. <\/p>\n Without an operational entity in place, the state was poised to begin actively recruiting the hundreds of people \u2014 from doctors to support staff \u2014 they would need to run the facility, a process that could take months, Jenkins said. As it stands, he said, the delay in UTSW\u2019s involvement after the lawmakers blocked the original plan has already cost the region months of critical services.<\/p>\n State Sen. Royce West, a Dallas Democrat and Senate budget writer, said he appreciates the process is moving forward and UTSW is taking another shot.<\/p>\n \u201cI am pleased that UT Southwestern will have an opportunity to bid on operations of the new state hospital in Dallas,\u201d West said. \u201cI believe UT Southwestern brings a lot to the table for this particular project.\u201d<\/p>\n Portions of the new psychiatric hospital under construction on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Dallas.<\/p>\n Christine Vo \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n With more than 25,000 employees and an annual budget of $6.4 billion, providers with UTSW deliver care each year to nearly 1 million patients, oversee 5 million outpatient visits, attend to 140,000 hospital patients and treat 360,000 emergency room visitors, officials said.<\/p>\n If UTSW is awarded the contract, it would take about eight months to start taking in patients after the funding is received, according to the bid to HHS. <\/p>\n The adult portion of the hospital is almost complete. The children\u2019s wing is set to be completed in the spring.<\/p>\n UTSW runs the adult psychiatric unit at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, and faculty provide psychiatric care at several other institutions, including Parkland Memorial Hospital, Children\u2019s Medical Center Plano, Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Texas Health Dallas, according to the bid. UTSW has also previously staffed the pediatric psychiatry unit at Children\u2019s Medical Center Dallas. <\/p>\n In total, UTSW faculty staff 155 licensed behavioral health beds in the region, the bid says. UTSW also provides intensive outpatient services to thousands more mental-health patients, the bid says. UTSW operates four schools, including UT Southwestern Medical School.<\/p>\n \u201cUTSW is a renowned academic medical center with extensive experience operating hospitals and psychiatric units, and providing high-quality, patient-centered adult and pediatric behavioral health care across six hospital systems,\u201d the bid with HHS reads. \u201cUTSW providers routinely care for hospitalized patients with difficult-to-treat behavioral health conditions, offering a comprehensive array of evidence-based pharmacological, psychosocial, and neuromodulation treatments, as well as all necessary specialized and subspecialty medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas state leaders and health officials have long acknowledged the state faces a crisis in mental health resources, leading lawmakers to put nearly $3 billion of a historic 2023 state budget surplus to improve access. A year later, the state announced the beginning of seven new projects<\/a> across the state, including the Dallas facility. <\/p>\n All but eight counties in the state have been designated as mental health professional shortage areas \u2014 with the worst gaps being in the availability of psychiatrists for children, UTSW officials said in their bid. In Texas, there are just 10 child psychiatrists for every 100,000 children \u2014 well below the recommended 47, the bid says.<\/p>\n According to a presentation<\/a> made to lawmakers by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission earlier this year, an average of 1,222 people were on a waitlist for a psychiatric bed in December 2024. <\/p>\n The adult wing of the new facility will reserve 75 beds for people going through the justice system, known as \u201cforensic\u201d patients \u2014 most of whom have been deemed incompetent to stand trial, and a small number of whom were committed to treatment after being found not guilty by reason of insanity.<\/p>\n Statewide, as of August, the forensic waitlist was at 1,769 people \u2014 down by about 800 from 2022, according to HHS.<\/a><\/p>\n The Dallas County jail is facing a mental health crisis, <\/a>with about 57% of people who were in jail last year having received mental health services from the state. <\/p>\n Local officials and community leaders in Dallas have led the charge<\/a> for the new hospital, forming a coalition in 2021 to plant the seeds for the idea that the region needs its own safety net psych hospital. The nearest state hospital is in Terrell, and serves the psychiatric needs of 25 counties \u2014 among the most populous in the state.<\/p>\n The Legislature approved $237.8 million in federal funds that year<\/a> for the Dallas hospital, along with $45 million in state funding to plan, design and acquire land for the facility. UTSW was engaged to help with that process and named as its operator.<\/a> It broke ground in 2022. <\/p>\n In 2023, the Dallas Regional Chamber sent a letter to lawmakers acknowledging that \u201cdue to inflation and rising construction costs,\u201d another $109 million would be needed to complete construction in addition to $68.5 million for ramp-up costs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe need for behavioral health services across Texas has never been greater in the Dallas region, there are only about five state inpatient hospital beds per 100,000 residents, less than half of the national average,\u201d the February 2023 letter said. \u201cWith demand for mental health services surging in North Texas as the result of rapid population growth, a declining supply of service providers, and adverse mental health impacts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, patients must often wait days or even weeks for treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the Legislature approved hundreds of millions of dollars to expand inpatient psychiatric care across the state, including funding to staff new and existing state hospitals, operate the new Dallas facility and support community mental health centers.<\/p>\n The initial plan was that although the new hospital would be funded and overseen by the state, it would be operated by UTSW, which has one of the largest psychiatric residency programs in the country and the largest residency and fellowship training program in the state, said state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. <\/p>\n The total amount approved for the Dallas hospital from 2021 to 2023 was $384 million, including the budget for UTSW to operate it, Kolkhorst told The News in a statement. Another $261 million was provided by Children\u2019s Health to build the pediatric wing.<\/p>\n But during budget sessions earlier this year, lawmakers led by Kolkhorst, who is also one of the chamber\u2019s budget writers, nixed the UTSW plan and called for cheaper bidders after its bed-rate projections came in \u201cmuch higher than any other rate currently paid by HHSC for public state hospital services, and would be higher than what the state would incur to operate the facility itself,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cIn other words, the higher rate proposed by UT Southwestern, along with its significant \u2018ramp-up\u2019 costs, would have a powerful and negative budgetary impact on all other state hospital bed rates in the future, as it is an outlier compared to other \u2018bed rates\u2019 paid to any entity in the state,\u201d Kolkhorst said in the statement.<\/p>\n The ramp-up costs referred to the nine-month process of getting the facility functional before it could open later in the year, officials said. <\/p>\n Kolkhorst did not say how much UTSW had said it would cost but added UTSW had acknowledged the need for more than was originally budgeted. The current bid says it can open the hospital, which like other state hospitals would be funded by the state every two years, under the current funding. UTSW would be prepared to make the case for any additional funding on top of that in the years ahead if needed, the bid says. <\/p>\n A rider on the state budget instructs the HHSC to issue a \u201crequest for information\u201d that would explore the viability of collecting other bids. Similar to a request for proposals, the RFI could precede a contract for running the facility, though it does not guarantee that one will be signed. The Legislative Budget Board, composed of state leaders and budget writers, would need to sign off on it before the commission awards a new contract. <\/p>\n Kolkhorst left the door open for UTSW to operate the hospital, but said her duty lies with taxpayers first. <\/p>\n \u201cAs Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, one of my constant responsibilities is to ensure that state-funded services are as cost-effective as possible,\u201d she said. \u201cMany Texans are concerned about skyrocketing property taxes and state budget spending, which means that it is vital for the state to explore all options to operate these facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Jenkins puts his confidence in UTSW\u2019s ability to \u201crespond to the bottom line\u201d laid out by legislators and said the improved outcomes the medical center could generate with its expertise and experience would benefit all taxpayers \u2014 not just the patients. <\/p>\n \u201cSouthwestern developed what I thought was a very thoughtful operating plan focused on better care and shorter stays, with things like transitional programs, interventional psychiatry \u2026 as well as obviously workforce training across the state,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cIt uses best-in-class models, tried and true in other places, to give us better outcomes here in Texas. And ultimately, that\u2019s not just what\u2019s best for the community around the sick person. It\u2019s what\u2019s best for all the taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n This story has been updated to include a statement from Recovery Solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN \u2014 As Texas scrambles to meet a crisis in resources for mental health patients, marked by monthslong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[132,27481,36065,102,581,104,103,287,293],"class_list":{"0":"post-85425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-childrens-health","10":"tag-clay-jenkins","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-county","13":"tag-dallas-headlines","14":"tag-dallas-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-texas-legislature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Portions](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TI4LBH74YNCHDCGD62DO27TDT4.jpg\")
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