CAPITOL - In a hearing last week before the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, Associate Vice Chancellor for Population Health David Lakey testified about ways the state could involve its institutions of higher learning in improving and modernizing the state hospital system.

As reported by the Quorum Report:

A key Texas Senate committee appears ready to tackle what former agency head David Lakey calls “a billion-dollar problem” around the maintenance of the state hospital system.

That’s what it would take to replace the five state psychiatric hospitals that a consultant study suggested were beyond repair in Rusk, Austin, Wichita Falls, San Antonio and Terrell. Each would cost about $200 million to replace, from demolition to construction.

For more on the testimony, and Lakey's suggestions for reform, see the video above or his presentation below.