Page 32 - Healthcare Heroes 2025

HealthcareHEROES
A P R O G R A M O F B U S I N E S S W E S T & H E A L T H C A R E N E W S
Dr. Thomas Lincoln says Hampden County’s primary are model for
incarcerated individuals has been adopted by several other communities.
Staff Photo
science and eventually majored in physics in college before getting into research
(geriatrics and cardiology) at Beth Israel in Boston.
“I decided I wanted to get into the people-based side of healthcare,” he said,
adding that he enrolled at what is now UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester
in 1983, with the goal of eventually getting into family medicine or emergency
medicine, a path inspired in part by work as an EMT while in
college.
He met his wife in medical school, and when she came to
Baystate Medical Center to practice pediatrics, Lincoln, who
was a year behind her in school, eventually followed her to
Springfield, choosing internal medicine over pediatrics.
“I was interested in community health and work at a
community health center,” he told BusinessWest, adding that he
eventually landed at the Brightwood facility after his residency
and has made it his career.
Sort of.
Starting in the early ’90s, his focus shifted to work at the
county’s correctional facilities, where he now spends five days a
week, a career path inspired in large part by the rise of HIV and
the medication to treat it, AZT.
“Folks would disappear for a few months, come back not on
medication, and we’d find out that they’d been in jail,” recalled
Lincoln, who became interested in HIV care following a rotation
at San Francisco’s Ward 86 HIV Clinic, the epicenter of the AIDS
crisis, while in medical school. “And with all the stigma and
everything, they wouldn’t tell health services — they wouldn’t
tell anyone — about their HIV until they got back out of jail and
came in for healthcare.”
This reality prompted officials at the Brightwood facility and
the former York Street Jail in Springfield to create a type of
outreach program to provide HIV care in the jail.
Lincoln, who was one of those providing such care, recalled
that, early on, it was mostly emergency room physicians working
after hours administering care to inmates, and over time, it was
determined that, instead of this episodic, urgent care model, a
primary care model would be more appropriate and provide more continuity with
follow-up after patients were released from prison at area health centers.
This would become what’s known as the Hampden County public health model
for correctional healthcare.
Today, four area health centers — the Brightwood, Mason Square, and
Southwest clinics in Springfield and Holyoke Health Center — are involved in
providing this model of care to those who are incarcerated, with designated
teams comprised of physicians from those facilities working with a primary nurse
practitioner or physician assistant who works full-time at the jail, as well as a case
“Folks would
disappear for a few
months, come back
not on medication,
and we’d find out
that they’d been
in jail. And with
all the stigma and
everything, they
wouldn’t tell health
services — they
wouldn’t tell anyone
— about their HIV
until they got back
out of jail and came
in for healthcare.”
manager and primary nurse.
“When people arrive at the jail, we divide them up by what neighborhood they’re
from or where they’re going for their healthcare,” Lincoln explained. “They are
assigned to a team; a primary nurse would follow up from the time they’re there,
and a physician comes in once a week to see people. It’s primary care.”
And it continues after the individual is released from jail, he went on, adding that
this continuity of care is critical for a population battling issues such as addiction,
other mental health issues, hepatitis C, HIV, hypertension, diabetes, and often
chronic injuries.
Williams agreed. “We would start the discharge planning with that team model
so that, when that patient went back out into the community, their plan would be
seamless, and there would be a continuity of care,” she explained. “Building that
relationship with the community provider while they were on the inside would
only help them return to the community and feel confident with the same provider
outside.”
Innovative Model
Measuring the success of this program is somewhat difficult due to a lack of
research on this population, but Lincoln believes it is certainly making a difference.
“Follow-up is a big marker — if someone’s following up, that’s generally a marker
for better health,” he said, adding that, while hard evidence is difficult to come by,
he believes the program is yielding results with everything from reduced ER visits
after release to improved overall health.
Williams agreed, noting that the primary care model is certainly needed at a
time when the inmate population is both older and sicker — and in need of such
continuity of care.
“People are sicker coming to jail,” she said. “There’s a dynamic where there’s
heighted mental health problems in the community, and with these problems
comes substance abuse issues, as well as not taking care of existing conditions such
as diabetes, hypertension, and liver disease associated with alcohol use, so people
are coming to jail sicker than they have in the past.
“And there’s also an aging population,” she went on. “The patients we’re seeing
now ... we have fewer numbers, but we have more co-morbidity and more acuity;
we have people in their 70s coming to jail.”
Meanwhile, one measure of success is the number of
communities that have adapted the model, or aspects of it, for
their correctional systems.
“The biggest adaptation and use of the model is Washington,
D.C.,” Lincoln explained, adding that the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation provides funding for a nonprofit to promulgate
the model and provide technical assistance. “There’s a large
community health center system, and they adapted this there for
the District of Columbia jail, and they actually dedicated a health
center as a re-entry health site.
“Other community health centers, other spots in the country
have looked at this and decided to do similar things; it very
much lends itself to the smaller location, where the jail and
the community health center serve the same population,” he
added, noting that representatives of several communities and
correctional facilities in states ranging from Florida to Michigan
have come to Ludlow to watch, listen, and learn.
Beyond his work with those who are incarcerated, Lincoln is
making a difference as an educator and mentor of young people
looking to follow his lead and make their mark in healthcare.
“In addition to his clinical leadership, Dr. Lincoln is a passionate
educator and mentor who has guided countless medical
students, residents, and early-career physicians,” Guhn said. “His
commitment to reaching the next generation of caregivers to
serve with empathy, humility, and cultural competence has had
a lasting impact not only on individual careers, but also on the
broader field of internal medicine.”
Williams said one of the best testimonials to all that Lincoln
brings to his work and the community is a scholarship that bears
his name, one she pushed hard to create.
“It’s awarded to a medical staff member who is looking to further their
education, and it talks about what he exemplifies, his moral principles, optimism,
integrity, honesty, and respect for human dignity. It’s given to a person who
epitomizes all that he stands for, and it’s my honor every year to talk about it.”
That’s a fitting tribute to someone who is called a pioneer, innovator, passionate
care provider, and now ... Healthcare Hero. BW
H32
2025 << 2025 HEALTHCARE HEROES >>