From his perch, working in the parking lot across the street, Willie Jackson sees lots of people come in and out of Fort Worth's John Peter Smith Hospital.
"A lot of them hang out, sleep out back behind the store," he told WFAA. "It's kind of like a revolving door."
They are mental health patients, he said, who repeatedly spend time on JPS Hospital's 10th floor.
What happens on that floor-- psychiatric care-- was front and center Tuesday at a meeting in downtown Fort Worth. Citizens Blue Ribbon Committee, composed mainly of community members with healthcare industry knowledge, made sweeping recommendations to Tarrant County commissioners and JPS Hospital board members on how JPS can be better equipped to handle the growing patient volume.
"It's a big deal," said committee co-chair Randy Moresi. "And every hospital feels it too, but particularly John Peter Smith."
"JPS provides 50 percent of the behavioral care in Tarrant County," he added. The county, Moresi said, sees 30,000 mental health patient visits a year.
But according to the committee, JPS hospital has just 132 beds designated for psychiatric care. Moresi, a former hospital CEO, says that has to change.
"Recommendation is they replace the current behavioral facility and build a 298-bed behavioral facility, which is more than double what we've got now here at JPS," he said.
The committee recommended other changes too, including building four new community health centers. According to Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, county commissioners and hospital board members should know by March how much the recommendations would cost to implement, and they'll make decisions in late summer on how they'll proceed.
"Oh, most definitely they need to do more," Willie Jackson said. "I don't know if it's more beds or system or what."
But based on what he sees, any help would be welcome.