Medicine Behind the Gates

Bloomberg Fellow and 2026 Bloomberg American Health Summit Speaker, Tricia Bautista serves as the Medical Director of Substance Use Services at NYC Health + Hospitals Correctional Health Services, where her commitments to addiction medicine, health equity and criminal justice reform converge. In this role she helps people serving time in New York City’s jail system receive treatment for  substance use disorders, helping them get started on the path to recovery.

We sat down with Tricia to learn more about her work, her passion and her “why”:

1. What does a typical day at work look like for you?

No two days look the same. As a family medicine physician and addiction specialist in one of the largest jail systems in the country, I split my time between caring for patients and keeping a complex addiction care service running. Some hours I'm seeing patients where they are, often in loud and unpredictable settings like jail medical and housing facilities. Other hours I'm supporting a large multidisciplinary team, teaching across departments, mentoring staff into leaders and working with partners to clear the barriers between our patients and the care they deserve. And most evenings, I'm a student again.

2. What brought you to this work and what drives you to stay?
 

I believe quality, compassionate care belongs in the places society is least likely to look. That belief has been my compass. My path to medicine was anything but linear, taking me from California to the Philippines and eventually to New York. During my addiction medicine fellowship in the Bronx, I worked across safety net hospitals, opioid treatment programs, bridge clinics, community health centers, and overdose prevention centers. Every setting taught me that meeting people where they are is not only an opportunity but an obligation. It also showed me how often people who are incarcerated were left out of the response to the overdose crisis. That compass led me to correctional health, where respect, empathy, and partnership can often be the best medicine.
 

3. What do you wish legislators knew about the work you do and the populations you work with?

Stigma kills. It has given us a fragmented care system, some of the most heavily regulated treatments in medicine, and an overdose epidemic that continues to take lives every day. Medications for opioid use disorder cut the risk of death roughly in half, yet fewer than one in five of the nearly six million Americans living with opioid use disorder receive them. That gap is a policy choice.

I also want legislators to know that almost everyone in jail comes home. The weeks after release are among the most dangerous in a person's life, with overdose risk far higher than for the general public. And if incarceration is a risk factor for early death, then every jail admission is also a chance to intervene. Starting addiction treatment, catching chronic disease that was missed and connecting people to care in the community is public health at one of the highest risk moments in a person's life. Data should guide us toward that care, not toward more punishment.
 

4. Are there any projects you are particularly proud of?
 

I'm proud of Correctional Health Services’ expansion from excellent addiction treatment to truly comprehensive addiction care. Medication is necessary but not sufficient, so we are working to grow our peer advocate program, build therapeutic housing where people can begin real recovery while in custody and expand medication options to mirror community standards. But what I'm most proud of are the people I work alongside. Watching them grow into leaders is the work that will outlast any one of us.

5. Are there any patient stories that have stuck with you?
 

I had no exposure to correctional medicine until the final months of my addiction medicine fellowship when I rotated at Rikers Island. Being there changed everything for me. Every day I came home angry, in tears or inspired. 

One day I met a 19-year-old in the housing units. He had never been incarcerated before and was in custody because his family couldn't afford bail. When I introduced myself, I shook his hand, looked him in the eye and placed my hand on his shoulder. He began to tear up. I worried I had offended him and started apologizing profusely. He told me it was the first time he had felt like a person since he got there. And in that small moment, I knew we had to do better. Basic human decency, respect and connection are a right, not something stripped away when you're in custody.

6. This is difficult work; what motivates you to do it?

My patients. They are among the most resilient people I have ever met, and many have been told their whole lives that they don't matter. I get to show them, through how I treat them, that they do. This work genuinely lights me up. And my mantra is simple: show up, be kind and stay thankful. On hard days, that's what gets me through the gate.

7. What made you apply to the Bloomberg Fellowship program?

Even the most committed physician can only do so much inside the walls of a medical encounter. The biggest barriers my patients face are systems and policy problems, not clinical ones. I applied to the Fellowship to learn to work at that level and to find community with people who understand that proximity to suffering isn't enough without the tools and the platform to change it. I believe the people I care for deserve not just access to care but excellence in it. This fellowship is how I learn to fight for that at scale.

Tune in to watch Tricia, and countless other incredible guests, speak live at the 2026 Bloomberg American Health Summit on October 20, 2026. Click here to watch the livestream.