NATCHEZ — Natchez Regional Medical Center and Natchez Community Hospital will continue to operate as two hospitals in the short term, but will share top administrators and governing boards until they can be combined.

The consolidation of the hospitals at the NRMC campus is positioned to begin in early 2015, officials with Community Health Systems said.

CHS, which has owned Natchez Community Hospital for nearly a year and officially purchased Natchez Regional Medical Center Wednesday, announced Natchez Community Hospital Chief Executive Officer Eric Robinson will also serve as NRMC’s CEO, replacing Donny Rentfro.

NCH’s Nursing Executive Lee Hinson will take the place of Regional’s Barbara Willis as chief nursing officer, and Nicholas Renda — a CHS corporate employee — will serve as interim chief financial officer while the company conducts a national search to replace Regional CFO Charles Mock.

NCH’s current board of trustees will also serve as NRMC’s board, though company officials characterized the arrangement as two boards composed of the same members to distinguish between operations. The hospitals are currently to be owned by separate subsidiaries of CHS.

The hospital boards are tasked with credentialing physicians and overseeing the quality of the medical staff. They do not have the same amount of financial control as the former NRMC board.

“Our community’s hospitals have traveled a long and sometimes challenging path that has made it abundantly clear Natchez will be best served by a single, well-supported, operationally strong hospital,” NCH board moderator Sue Stedman said.

“By combining the strengths of both hospitals, we can better manage health care resources, better focus capital investments and better bolster physician recruiting efforts to meet the needs of our community.”

CHS President and CEO Wayne Smith said the company sees considerable opportunity to support physicians and employees as they work together to create a sustainable, successful health care system.

“The combination of these facilities ultimately will result in an operationally strong hospital, a more coordinated approach to patient care and enhanced access to a wide array of quality health services for local residents,” Smith said.

Natchez Regional Medical Center is a 179-bed hospital. Natchez Community Hospital is a 101-bed facility.

Company officials said a rebranding of the combined facilities — such as a new name — could come in the future, but wouldn’t be announced until the integration was complete.

CHS officials met with NRMC managers and staff Wednesday morning to talk about future plans.

“I thought it was very well-received,” Robinson said. “They were certainly showing some nervous anxiousness, but excited about the potential of what it could be.”

As the hospitals move toward the consolidation, construction at NRMC will begin in the next several months.

Hospital officials have said construction projects will include:

• Emergency room optimization to accommodate more patients.

• Reconfiguration of operating room support and recovery areas to enhance operating room capabilities and to allow for greater surgical volumes.

• Renovation and expansion in labor and delivery suites.

• Renovation of patient rooms, nurse stations and visiting areas and the reopening of the mothballed fourth floor at NRMC.

• Improvement to information technology infrastructure to improve the transmission of information and patient data.