WORCESTER, Mass. – UMass Memorial Health is looking for solutions to a patient “backup” problem impacting hospitals across the state.

A new report by the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association shows nearly 1,200 patients are stuck in hospitals every day because even though they're ready to be discharged to a lower level of care, there is nowhere to send them. Several post-acute care facilities either don't have enough beds or staff or they've shut down.

In Worcester, UMass said on any given day they have about 80 patients without a place to go. To help address the problem, vice president of patient care services Kimberly Barry said more needs to be done to support post-acute care facilities.

"The reimbursement they receive from MassHealth is not meeting their needs to care for patients safely, so that's concerning,” Barry said. “We’re going to see this problem magnify over time. I'm concerned that a lot of our private insurers don't cover long term care costs and it’s defaulted to MassHealth, but really a lot of the private insurers could cover long-term care costs to ease the burden on MassHealth."

Barry said there is also a need for more specialty long-term beds for patients who need long-term care but also have underlying behavioral health concerns.