SHREVEPORT, La. ( KTAL/KMSS ) – A new study has analyzed data from the American Hospital Directory to determine which U.S. states have the highest number of staffed hospital beds, and a shockingly high number of Southern states require more hospital beds than their Northern counterparts.
Mississippi has 3.1 staffed hospital neds for every 1000 residents, which puts them in front of Louisiana (second) and West Virginia (third.)
The study was conducted by personal injury attorneys John Foy & Associates .
Hospital directory data was measured against U.S. Census data to determine which states had the highest need for staffed hospital beds per 100000 people.
US states with highest number of staffed hospital beds
| Rank | State | Number of Hospitals | Staffed Beds | Population | Staffed Beds Per 100,000 Residents |
| 1 | Mississippi | 65 | 9,127 | 2,939,690 | 310 |
| 2 | Louisiana | 108 | 13,834 | 4,573,749 | 302.5 |
| 3 | West Virginia | 34 | 5,343 | 1,770,071 | 301.9 |
| 4 | South Dakota | 23 | 2,668 | 919,318 | 290 |
| 5 | Alabama | 90 | 14,751 | 5,108,468 | 289 |
| 6 | New York | 180 | 55,639 | 19,571,216 | 284 |
| 7 | Kentucky | 72 | 12,665 | 4,526,154 | 280 |
| 8 | Missouri | 81 | 16,530 | 6,196,156 | 267 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | 177 | 34,399 | 12,961,683 | 265 |
| 10 | Tennessee | 97 | 18,548 | 7,126,489 | 260 |