About Our Founders

After completing residency, Dr. Butler was instrumental in the formation and management of several Emergency Department organizations. He served as Medical Director of the Arizona Heart Hospital Emergency Department. He was a founding partner and served as Director of Financial Operations for Chandler Emergency Medical Group. Prior to founding TEC, he served as CEO of Affilion®, Inc. for seven years. Affilion® was a successful ED staffing company that had multiple ED contracts across the Southwest and is now part of EmCare®. He co-founded The Emergency Center to better focus on innovative patient care and currently serves as its CEO.

Dr. Butler also has an extensive IT background across multiple industries and is a Six Sigma Green Belt with process redesign experience. Continually improving patient care via innovative management and process improvements has been a core focus of his career.

After completing residency, Dr. Wilke continued at Maricopa Medical Center and served in many leadership capacities such as teaching faculty, Chief of House Staff, and Emergency Department Medical Director. At the same time, he and his partners started a medical software company that grew and merged into a major provider in the space of electronic data capture in FDA pharmaceutical trials. Dr. Wilke has extensive experience in the formation and management of several Emergency Department organizations. He was a founding partner for Chandler Emergency Medical Group where he served as Director of Emergency Department Operations at Chandler Regional Medical Center. While at Chandler Dr. Wilke created the very first Medical Scribe Program in the state of Arizona. After returning to Texas, he created an ED staffing group, Traditions Emergency Medicine, that staffed the College Station Medical Center, where he also served as Chief of Staff. Dr. Wilke was also a founding member and Chief Medical officer of Affilion®, Inc.

Dr. Wilke currently serves as the Chief Operations Officer for The Emergency Center. In his role, he has coordinated systems for graded interviews and hiring, development of physician leadership coaching and management, creating systems for meeting and group communication, Cerner training and auto-text scripting, launching and curating a system wiki, and creation of ED flow systems for efficiency.

Dr. Wilke has his pilot’s license and enjoys camping and hiking. He has organized several medical mission trips to Africa and serves as a critical care physician in the United States Air Force Reserve.

As a pioneer in the Free-Standing ER market, Dr. Erdner co-founded Highland Park Emergency Center and Preston Hollow Emergency Center in Dallas, Texas in 2012. Both facilities have been extremely successful from inception. As a managing member, Dr. Erdner was intimately involved in the strategic planning in opening and managing both businesses. He was responsible for corporate marketing which included, branding, online social media, mass media mailing and radio, sponsoring local charitable events, and partnering with Southern Methodist University as the official ER of SMU athletics.

Marketing also included understanding and analyzing customer demographics and the cost per acquisition. He oversaw the hiring and management of the staff including the director of operations, marketing director, front office, nurses, and techs. While overseeing accounting he worked closely with the accounting firm creating budgets and analysis and forecasting cash flow. Dr. Erdner withdrew from his position at Highland Park and Preston Hollow Emergency Centers so he could join The Emergency Center full time. Dr. Erdner is also an Associate Clinical Professor at Texas A&M College of Medicine. He enjoys cycling, soccer and playing the piano in his free time.

The Provider Relations Team covered all aspects of physician support including recruiting, credentialing, scheduling, and hospital relations. Kristen uses her extensive provider support experience in her current role at TEC. She currently manages all aspects of Human Resources for TEC and oversees back office operations. Kristen is responsible for implementing several innovative business management programs.