User Spotlight: Angelica Ibarra,
Crisis Intervention Team, Emergence Health Network

Can you tell us about your unit and what you do?
“I work for the Crisis Intervention Team, a unit that was created to respond to mental health related 911 calls (including suicidal/homicidal individuals and those who have drastically decompensated due to mental health issues) by co-deploying a mental health specialist with an officer who has also been trained in mental health. Specifically, the unit serves different purposes such as diverting mental health patients from medical hospitals and jails to psychiatric hospitals, reducing use of force by law enforcement, and linking the community to mental health resources”.
How would you describe your use of PHIX?
“PHIX is a useful resource for our unit because it provides us practical medical information on-the-go. The main information that I look for is EDO (Emergency Detention Order) history, medical/psychiatric diagnoses, substance use, military/VA affiliation, recent hospitalizations, and COVID-19 results”.
How has having COVID-19 results available through PHIX helped you?
“During the pandemic, PHIX has also been useful to help protect our staff by being able to verify if our patients have been tested before and being able to see their results before we encounter them out in the community. I was also able to create a tracker for our unit and our Crisis and Emergency Services clinic that listed our patient’s positive or negative results. Overall, during the pandemic we have been able to take better precautionary measures when responding to calls because of PHIX.”.
Find COVID-19 Results in PHIX
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COVID-19 test results are available through the PHIX health information exchange.
- Login at portal.pdnhie.org
- Search for your patient
- Go to the “Results” section of the “Patient Summary”
- Look for results from “City of El Paso Department of Public Health” and “GYN PATH”.
- For tests performed by hospitals, look for “COVID-19″ results,”SARS-COV-2” results, and “Micro Immuno Misc” results.
Be Prepared to Help with EP MedCorps

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PHIX is working to help recruit a volunteer work force in response to COVID-19 in partnership with the El Paso County Medical Society, BorderRAC, and the Paso del Norte Health Foundation.
Be prepared to help!
The El Paso healthcare community needs your specialized skills now more than ever. EP MedCorps was established to help handle overflow in El Paso, in the event that the region’s healthcare system suffers a shortage of personnel to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.
EP MedCorps is not just for COVID-19 though. This group of volunteers will be ready to help respond to any health care crisis.
Why volunteer?
You have a unique skill set and opportunity to directly help your community. You can make a difference!
EP MedCorps is a volunteer force of dedicated professionals who stand ready to support the community. Become an EP MedCorps volunteer today; you never know when your community may need you!
Who can volunteer?
Everyone who is interested is encouraged to sign-up to be ready to volunteer, including clinicians and non-clinicians of all specialties and backgrounds.
We welcome retired and out-of-state professionals.
Volunteer today!
Whatever your background or specialty, EP MedCorps needs your information now so that our community is prepared to come together to help respond to health crises. Please call (915) 242-0676 or click here to submit your information if you would like to volunteer your help.
Submitting your information does not obligate your commitment. We will reach out with more details if your skillset can help our community.
Thank you!
Thank you to the Paso del Norte Health Foundation for generously supporting this work through grant funding.