An agreement that links three health providers — two on the Vineyard and one on Cape Cod — will simultaneously bring Medicare-certified hospice care to the Island and douse a minor feud between Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard and the Vineyard Nursing Association.

The 28-year-old Vineyard hospice last week signed an agreement that will allow Hospice and Palliative Care of Cape Cod to establish Island Hospice, an administrative branch that will provide Medicare-certified hospice services on the Vineyard. And this week the Vineyard Nursing Association signed a separate agreement with the Cape Cod hospice that will allow the use of VNA nurses, therapists and home health aides to provide hospice care to Islanders.

The VNA had announced last year that it intended to pursue becoming an independent, Medicare-certified hospice; the announcement ruffled the feathers of the Vineyard hospice, a unique institution that has traditionally operated as a free service, supported completely by donations and unfettered by the constraints of insurance regulations. Three months after the VNA announcement, Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard announced that it would form an affiliation with Hospice and Palliative Care of Cape Cod in order to offer Medicare-certified services as well.

Although the news this week adds considerably to the alphabet soup of hospice care organizations on the Island, patient care is not expected to feel any ripples — except in the form of expanded services. The administrative agreements will allow hospice patients to move through the system without changing nurses, therapists and home health aides.

And with the establishment of Island Hospice, the VNA and Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard will remain distinct.

“This is the best of both worlds; there will be no community confusion and we all meet our goals,” said Robert Tonti, executive director of the Vineyard Nursing Association.