MOUNT VERNON — The joint boards of commissioners for the Cascade Valley, Island and Skagit Valley hospitals are inviting the public to receive information and provide comments at a community forum at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 31, at McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon, about possibly affiliating with Providence/Swedish, Virginia Mason, the University of Washington or PeaceHealth.

Cascade Valley Hospital Community Relations Coordinator Jennifer Egger explained that the three partnered nonprofit community hospitals are seeking an additional partnership with a larger health care system to save more lives, provide better care, offer more services within their own communities, bring more physicians who are highly trained to those communities, and provide access to industry-leading tools and technologies.

After the hospitals received responses from the four nonprofit health care systems, the University of Washington announced a partnership with PeaceHealth, so those two are being considered jointly.

The leadership of all three hospitals have reviewed and discussed the responses, and are carefully evaluating all aspects of forming a partnership with any of these larger health care systems, including issues related to partnering with a faith-based health care system. CVH officials expect a decision could be made before the end of the summer.

For more information, log onto www.cascadevalley.org/2013/05/03/responses-to-request-for-proposals.