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Community Health Network, which operates a small hospital in Berlin and 10 clinics, will become part of ThedaCare under an agreement announced Wednesday.

The agreement was approved this week by the boards of Community Health Network and Appleton-based ThedaCare.

Community Health Network employs 800 people, including more than 35 physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and has clinics in Green Lake, Waushara, Marquette and Fond du Lac counties.

"The changing health care environment is requiring organizations like us and ThedaCare to look for ways to enhance health care quality, deliver health care more cost-effectively, reduce duplication, and improve the patient experience," John Feeney, chief executive officer and president of Community Health Network, said in a statement.

ThedaCare also will install its Epic system for electronic health records at Community Health Network.

ThedaCare, which employs 6,100 people, operates Appleton Medical Center and Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah as well as three small rural hospitals.

In 2011, Shawano Medical Center became part of its system, and ThedaCare is building a $50 million hospital in Shawano scheduled to be completed early next year.

The agreement announced Wednesday is a small example of a new wave of consolidation taking place in health care.

In 2012, 105 agreements were reported, compared with 50 to 60 a year from 2005-'07, according to a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The trend can be seen in Wisconsin:

■ SSM Health Care, the parent of St. Mary's Hospital in Madison as well as hospitals in Baraboo and Janesville, bought Dean Health Systems, its long-standing partner, last year.

■ Meriter Health Services in Madison has became part of UnityPoint Health, a health system based in West Des Moines, Iowa.

■ The parent of Ministry Health Care, which has 14 hospitals in Wisconsin and one in eastern Minnesota, has became part of Ascension Health Alliance, the parent of Columbia St. Mary's Health System.