NATCHEZ — Merit Health Natchez officials say the hospital is on track to consolidate its two campuses into one at the former Natchez Regional Medical Center facility within six weeks.

Construction that was part of the first improvements to the Merit Health Natchez (MHN) main campus’ surgical department in 20 years was completed last week.

Work to improve the third and fourth floors — which house labor and delivery and patient rooms — is also on schedule, officials said.

While the work has been ongoing, surgeries and labor and delivery services have been wholly relocated to the MHN — Community Campus, formerly known as Natchez Community Hospital.

MHN has invested approximately $25 million since its parent company — Community Health Systems (CHS) — acquired the former Natchez Regional campus a year ago, a move that effectively ended decades of medical standoff in Natchez as two hospitals duplicated services in an effort to compete.

CHS had acquired the Natchez Community campus earlier in 2014, and earlier this year both facilities were associated with the Merit Health network.

“The last year has been a busy — but very exciting — time at Merit Health Natchez as we look forward to welcoming a new phase of healthcare and becoming a single strong provider for Natchez,” CEO Eric Robinson said. “On behalf of our board, physicians and employees, we thank our community for their support.”

What will ultimately happen to the Community Campus consolidation is complete is still undecided, Robinson said.

“We continue to explore possibilities for the Merit Health Natchez – Community Campus facility and will share them as soon as they are finalized,” Robinson said.

One of the key components of the hospital’s overhaul is replacing equipment.

The monitoring equipment in the hospital’s cardiac rehabilitation program recently stopped working, and the program has not had full clinical operations since then.

Patients who do not require the monitoring equipment are still being worked with onsite, while a small number of patients who do require the monitoring are temporarily maintaining their conditioning with home exercises while the hospital awaits the delivery of its new equipment, Robinson said.

“We have apologized to our patients for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate their understanding,” he said.

The complete renovations include more than 34,000 square-feet of the former NRMC campus.

The former Natchez Medical Foundation physician’s group has also affiliated with the Merit Health Medical Group, and hospital officials said the signage and materials associated with the medical practices and locations associated with it will be changed to reflect that.

Robinson said the shared name reflects the effort for practices to work together to coordinate patient care.