Two large hospitals in the Los Angeles area would be under the same parent organization under a proposed affiliation plan announced by Cedars-Sinai and Torrance Memorial Medical Center.

Under the agreement, the two organizations would retain their current boards and operate separately, but would affiliate under an organization with a new board of directors, to be called Cedars-Sinai Health System. The longtime president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai, Thomas Priselac, would serve in the same capacity for the parent entity, while Craig Leach would remain as president and CEO of Torrance Memorial.

"While both Torrance Memorial and Cedars-Sinai have strong track records for serving the region, the governance structure of the proposed affiliation is designed to foster collaboration and share resources to further enhance those capabilities to benefit patients and the community," Priselac said in a statement.

Nowhere in the press release announcing the affiliation is the deal called a merger. The stated goals are to increase access to healthcare, and while costs are expected to be reduced, no layoffs or staff reductions are expected, and each of the organizations would “continue to have…its own hospital medical staff and related physician organizations, and its own employees.”

Among the facilities which would be under the control of this new organization are the 886-bed Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, ranked among the top 20 hospitals overall and in the top 10 for cardiology by U.S. News and World Report last year. Cedars-Sinai also operates the 145-bed Marina Del Rey Hospital in Los Angeles and a “multispecialty physician network of 887 doctors.”

Torrance Memorial is a 425-bed facility highly-ranked in U.S. News’ California and Los Angeles hospital rankings. In 2012, it earned Magnet recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.