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The latest health-care partnership was made official this week: The boards of both Virginia Mason Medical Center and Evergreen Healthcare voted to approve their “strategic partnership” first announced in November.

The two organizations say they plan to collaborate and integrate services, beginning with cardiac care and home and hospice care, but won’t combine finances or management. The plan is to avoid duplicating services, and to build on the strengths of the two systems, ideally broadening access to care for patients and employers and lowering costs.

While Virginia Mason’s 440 primary- and specialty-care doctors are on salary and most of Evergreen’s 950 physicians are independent and based in the community, Evergreen spokesman Ken LeBlond said the goal is to eventually simplify billing to the patient.

Virginia Mason, a not-for-profit system, and Evergreen, a public hospital district, said they do not anticipate any reduction of staff or services because of the affiliation.