A shortage of nursing home places is forcing NHS bosses to keep patients on the wards instead of discharging them.
Mid Sussex NHS Trust says a significant number of beds are denied other patients each day because of the problem.
Kate Honeywell, director of nursing and quality, said the biggest backlogs were caused by delays in money being allocated by social services staff for residential or nursing home care.
New standards for monitoring the problem are being adopted in Mid and West Sussex from October 2.
Other ideas are also being pursued to help ease the bed shortage.
One is providing special beds at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead as a "halfway house" between leaving hospital and settling into residential or nursing home care.
The successful Intensive Home Nursing Service, where people receive care at home, is being expanded.
It enables patients to leave hospital sooner than they would otherwise be able to.
About 70 beds a day are affected by the fact that although patients are considered fit enough to leave the ward they have nowhere to go.
The problem becomes even more acute when there is a rise in emergency admissions and beds are needed for the extra patients.
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