Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina hospitals looking to transfer mental health patients into psychiatric facilities are feeling a squeeze.

Records show Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh put patients on wait lists about two-thirds of the time in the past three months.

The state's mental hospitals have lost capacity over the past three decades as officials downsize state mental hospitals in favor of private outpatient care.

However, monthly admissions of adult patients at Dorothea Dix have increased by more than one-third in the past four years.