A new identity for Vicksburg’s prime provider of health care services is just what the doctor ordered, its CEO said at a brief ceremony Monday.

“With our name change, we have developed a new visual identity which can be seen behind me,” CEO Greg Person said near Merit Health River Region’s main access road before hospital officials and others cut a ribbon to recognize the re-branded hospital on U.S. 61 North. A new logo for River Region and five other hospitals in the new network signifies a magnolia, with a gray bud in the middle that represents growth and possibilities, Pearson said.

“Today we celebrate a new milestone for our organization and for the health care of Vicksburg and Warren County and the surrounding areas,” he said during the eight-minute ceremony. “By unifying all of the clinics and hospital into one network, our community will be able to visually identify us all as a comprehensive health system.”

In January, River Region and the five hospitals and 36 affiliated clinics purchased early last year by Community Health Systems formed the new brand in the name of expanding certain services. Member facilities besides River Region are Central Mississippi Medical Center, in Jackson, River Oaks Hospital and Woman’s Hospital, in Flowood, Crossgates River Oaks Hospital, in Brandon, and Madison River Oaks Medical Center in Canton. Pearson said the hospitals had a combined payroll of $133 million in 2013, including benefits.

No changes to services or physician bases came with the announcement, and a $13.2 million annex building under final phases of construction on the hospital’s front lawn is still expected to open by May.

Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. touted the newly named hospitals as a chance to increase the community’s name recognition.

“When we talk about the economic impact of what this health care means to the City of Vicksburg and Warren County, I think it’s phenomenal,” Flaggs said.

Services that have been housed in The Street Clinic on McAuley Drive and at River Region West on North Frontage Road are expected to move into the new annex. Busiest among those moving are pediatrics, sports medicine, pain management, urology and rheumatology.

Facilities with the Merit name were part of a $7.6 billion deal between CHS and Health Management Associates Inc. that added 71 properties to CHS’ purview. The sale took in Medical Associates of Vicksburg, which had been operated by CMMC.

River Region was created in 2002 from the merger of ParkView Regional Medical Center and Vicksburg Medical Center. The hospital’s main patient load is pulled from counties and Louisiana parishes along the Mississippi River, the South Delta and western Hinds County.