Evergreen Community Health Care, which also is known as King County (Wash.) Public Hospital District No. 2, and Seattle-based Swedish Medical Center signed a memorandum of understanding last week to form a regional healthcare system.
They intend to form a not-for-profit joint operating company to lease and operate their facilities.
The facilities include 166-bed Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland, Wash., and two Swedish hospitals in Seattle and Ballard with a total of 860 beds.
The new company will be governed by a nine-member board and will be responsible for strategic planning, program development, budgeting and contracting. The partners will share expertise and equipment on a regional basis while continuing to meet the needs of their individual communities, officials said.
Filing for a certificate of need, signing a definitive agreement and performing due diligence could take several months.
The joint operating company is expected to begin operations by mid-1988.
The memorandum calls for retaining Swedish in the new company's name.
The organizations said they might join with additional partners in the future and will collaborate on new technologies and services to build programs between urban and suburban communities. They hope their collaboration will help them compete more effectively for contracts to provide healthcare in the region.