Promise Hospital has left the sixth floor of Merit Health River Region, a company spokesman said.

Tim Lineberger, public information officer for KPC Promise Hospital, said the company moved off the sixth floor on June 8. He gave no further information about Promise’s future plans or if the provider planned to take legal action against Merit Health.

Merit Health spokesperson Melanie McMillin confirmed Promise has left River Region, adding Promise discharged the patients before moving out. She said the sixth-floor space is now being used for in-patient care.

KPC Promise Hospital operated a long-term care facility at Merit Health River Region. Its decision to leave River Region came almost a month after Merit Health announced it was terminating Promise’s lease because the company failed to keep up its rent for one year.

In a written statement Kerry D. Goff, CEO of KPC Promise Hospital Vicksburg, said Merit Health previously agreed to a payment schedule for past rent, which included the receipt of a $269,694 payment in April and a scheduled payment of $257,000 for May.

According to a source familiar with the situation, Merit had checks in hand for $410,793 and had already cleared $256,591 of that total. KPC Promise was complying and making payments, according to the source.

Goff called Merit Health’s decision to terminate the lease “appears to be nothing more than a profit-motivated money grab at the expense of important healthcare services our community depends on.”

Promise in 2018 moved to the main Merit Health campus on U.S. 61 North after spending 15 years at Merit Health’s west campus on North Frontage Road.

A company spokesman said at the time the biggest reason for relocating was to better serve the hospital’s patients and make it easier for any of its patients staying at the hospital to transition to the sixth floor instead of another campus.