MONTPELIER — If Rutland Regional Medical Center takes on some of the patients from the troubled Vermont State Hospital, the union representing state workers hopes to get first dibs on the jobs there.

The Vermont State Employees Association, the union representing about 8,000 state workers, told hospital officials in a letter last month that their members should get hiring priority if they build a new psychiatric wing.

Jes Kraus, the president of VSEA, also told the hospital that if this new psychiatric wing opens in Rutland, the organization would try to organize workers there into a labor union.

"In addition, should your proposal be accepted by the Legislature, VSEA will be exploring the possibility of an organizing drive at RRMC," Kraus wrote. "We believe your staff should be afforded all the protections of a union, particularly when VSH employees have the highest rates of injury in state government."

For years, Vermont officials have tried to close the State Hospital in Waterbury, a facility that nearly everyone agrees is inadequate to properly care for the state's most extreme cases of mental disorder and substance abuse. Due to several suicides and other problems at the facility several years ago, it has lost federal funding.

But the details of how exactly to replace the building — and find safe rehabilitative homes for the roughly 50 patients there — have stalled reforms. State officials now hope to build a 15-bed residential facility in Waterbury and offer smaller groups of beds at community hospitals around the state.

"We're making some progress this summer," said Michael Hartman, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Mental Health. "Between now and the end of the summer, we have meetings planned with providers and consumers and a special group that will be meeting with patients in the hospital."

Hartman said he hopes to have an application for a certificate of need for the new 15-bed facility submitted by early winter — and state law requires either the Joint Fiscal Committee or the Mental Health Oversight Committee of the Legislature to review the details 30 days before they are submitted.

Meanwhile, hospitals in St. Johnsbury and Springfield, along with the Brattleboro Retreat, the largest psychiatric unit in the state, have also expressed interest in taking on some patients and beds — if the price is right.

That's a big change from a few months ago when it seemed as if few, if any, hospitals in the state were truly interested in operating residential psychiatric units. Hartman said as the Rutland portion of the project moves forward, other hospital officials have expressed interest.

"As the Rutland concept gained some more clarity, other hospitals have expressed more interest in being players here," he said.

The VSEA opposes the plan put forward by Gov. James Douglas' administration to send VSH beds to private hospitals.

In the union's letter to Rutland Regional Medical Center President Thomas Huebner, Kraus writes that the union hopes the state will shift gears and instead build a new "state-of-the-art facility that retains the experience and expertise of current staff while preserving a safety net for all Vermonters with acute mental illness."

Kraus also wrote that the union will ask the Legislature to pass a bill giving VSH workers hiring priority and allowing them to retain their status as state employees if the Rutland hospital goes forward with its plans.

"This would mirror the public-private partnership that the state currently has with Fletcher Allen Health Care, whose psychiatrists work closely with state employees at VSH," the letter reads.

Huebner is out of the office this week and could not be reached for comment, according to a spokesperson at the Rutland hospital.

Hartman declined to endorse the possible VSEA legislation, but said he gets the message sent by the union. There are numerous employees at the State Hospital with valuable experience and, if and when the hospital closes, he doesn't want to lose that expertise.

"We have employees who have been working there for 20 or 30 years," Hartman said. "We'll want to keep them and their knowledge in the system."

daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.