The Emergency Center of Arizona

The Emergency Center of Arizona (TEA) is a physician-led group that provides outsourced emergency department management and staffing services for hospitals. The group is led by physicians with extensive experience in emergency medicine, including founders Dr. Keith Butler and Dr. Eric Wilke. Dr. Butler, the CEO, has a background that includes an MBA in Healthcare Management and founding a medical software company. Dr. Wilke, the COO, has held numerous leadership roles, including Chief of Staff and Emergency Department Medical Director at various medical centers.

The company's business model focuses on partnering with hospital systems to manage their emergency services, aiming to improve patient flow and quality of care. This involves staffing emergency rooms with their network of board-certified ER physicians and ER- and ICU-trained nurses. On August 22, 2025, TEA announced a strategic merger with Emergency Care Partners (ECP), a national provider of emergency medicine services backed by private equity firms Regal Healthcare Capital Partners and MidOcean Partners. Following the merger, TEA continues to service fourteen Dignity Health Arizona General Hospital emergency departments in the Greater Phoenix area, treating approximately 240,000 patients annually. Dr. Keith Butler remains president of the group, and other key physician leaders like Drs. Joel Betz, Jason Linder, and Paul McHale continue in their roles.

Through its parent organization, TEA is connected to a broader portfolio of healthcare services. The founders of The Emergency Center launched TECHealth, which offers solutions including ER physician staffing, a proprietary electronic medical record (EMR) platform called TECdoc, and partnership models for freestanding emergency rooms. This structure allows local physician groups to maintain clinical autonomy while benefiting from the resources of a national organization.

Keywords: emergency medicine management, outsourced hospital services, physician staffing, emergency department operations, clinical analytics platform, freestanding emergency rooms, healthcare partnerships, Dignity Health Arizona, Emergency Care Partners, TECHealth, electronic medical records, physician-led groups, hospital administration, patient flow optimization, clinical services solutions, emergency care staffing, medical practice management, healthcare mergers, Phoenix healthcare