Jackie Busse, MD

My wife and I met Dr. Busse at the birthing center shortly after the birth of our daughter. We liked her friendly, youthful manner and appreciated the fact that she was a vegan. Unfortunately, her alternative lifestyle choices did not translate into her practice, especially in her approach to vaccines. Although she initially said that she’d be happy to accommodate an alternative schedule, she seemed annoyed when we turned down the first batch of shots, implying that we were ignoramuses rather than simply cautious parents wanting more information. Her stance on the matter of vaccines is perfectly understandable, but her condescension was not welcome.
That said, our main complaint is actually with Dr. Busse’s staff at the Palo Alto medical center on Soquel Ave. On two separate occasions, we received a «courtesy» phone call mere minutes before our daughter’s appointment and were told that we could not be seen that day due to a problem with the insurance. When we expressed disappointment at how this was handled, we were met with rudeness rather than apologies. On another occasion, we were running 10 minutes late to an appointment due to an extended baby nap, so we called while on the way and were told that we could only be seen if we arrived within 5 minutes. We sped through traffic and managed to get through the door exactly 7 minutes later, baby in arms, only to be told that we had to reschedule.
In short, Dr. Busse and especially her team are not nearly as warm or personable as one would hope for with early pediatric care.

This pediatrician told me that because I was having emotional issues and behavioral issues with my daughter that it was my own fault because I wasn’t disciplining her. She told me that in no way was I doing the right thing by my child by seeing if maybe her behavioral troubles would go away with food changes or a different parenting style. She wrote in my file that i wasn’t a good parent. I know this because my other doctor saw it when I switched back to her as quickly as possible. She then proceeded to tell one of my family members all about my appointment with her. LOVELY patient confidentiality. I would NEVER recommend someone like her!

So happy to find a doctor to help us out! We were traveling recently and needed to find a pediatrician quickly to help my daughter, and Dr. Busse was so helpful and caring when she met us. It’s so hard to find people who you trust, and I thought it was so sweet of her to follow up with us a week later to see how things were going with the antibiotics. Great clinic, great people, great doctor!

Dr. Busse is well loved and admired in our family. My 2 year old runs around the house saying ‘Dr Busse, Dr Busse’ and I imagine our daughter will too when she can talk. There’s a true peace when you have a Doctor that you can trust, and I trust her. She has seen both of my kids since they were hours old and has fully listened to my concerns and assessed them thoroughly. I love how she explains things, and has eased my anxiety when at times something is going on. When I think the visit is over she asks ‘what else?, and amazingly I’ve never left thinking I forgot something. I feel like I’m able to get an appointment with ease, and she answers her emails timely. She is warm and welcoming, listens, and is smart! It’s a blessing to have a knowledgeable trustworthy Doctor, I look forward to my kids growing up with the same Doctor just as I did. I highly recommend her!

Our family can’t say enough good things about Dr.Busse. She recently cared for our 3 week old son while he was admitted in the NICU for 5 nights. She was kind, compassionate, professional, caring and took amazing care of our son. She always thought about what was best for him and myself who never left the hospital during his stay, she always made sure I had the support I needed too. She kept in great contact with my husband and I, always discussing the plan of care and asking about our concerns about our sons return home. Her bedside manor was kind and gentle and she always listened to us.
She is a great physician and an asset to our community. She met and exceeded all of expectations as our physician. If you are looking for a great pediatrician please consider her, she will not let you down.
I am shocked and saddened to see poor reviews of her as it does not paint an accurate picture of her and our experience. We could not thank her enough for making such a hard admission tolerable.
Hats off to her!

Dr. Busse is wonderful in every single way and I can not recommend her more highly!
I am shocked to see some of these reviews, totally unbelievable. Dr. Busse has been caring for our child since day one and has been been nothing but amazing. She is a sweet and kind person who our daughter gravitated towards immediately, she listens to our concerns and explains the scientific rationale for her all her recommendations (which is a must for us). OK, Dr Busse is the first and only pediatrician we have ever know, but we can not recommend her any more than we do. Really.

My daughter’s medical device broke (an insulin pump) as well as her insulin pen – the perfect storm. I called PAMF and Dr Busse asking for a prescription for a new pen. My daughter cannot live without insulin. Dr Busse, our new doctor who agreed to be supportive of us in an emergency since there is no pediatric endocrinologist in Santa Cruz County, refused to write the prescription despite the situation being quite urgent and highly unusual (it had never happened before in 8 years). Dr Busse would not return my phone call. Shockingly, she just refused the prescription for the pen and had her nurse tell us to track down our doctor in Palo Alto.

One star seems like too high a rating for this doctor. First and foremost she is completely lacking in a bedside manner. Second, she can’t see beyond the charts. My daughter was 6 ½ weeks premature and spent 44 days in the NICU at Dominican. Once released her first appointment with Dr. Busse went «ok.» She said she lost a little weight, but that was to be expected. The next week she didn’t like her weight gain and said she wanted to wait another week and then possibley change her formula mix up. Week three she wanted to put in immediately back into the NICU.
Never once did she tell us that she had diagnosed my daughter as Failure to Thrive (FTT). This was something I had to read online when checking my daughters chart. Dr. Busse was never even what I would call nice and acted like we weren’t feeding our daughter right because we didn’t want a fat baby. No true at all and never even discussed. Since I had read her chart online I had done a great deal of research on the matter, so I told her I wanted a second opinion from Stanford on putting her back in the NICU. She didn’t want to and was making excuses not to give me a referral to Stanford. When we demanded the referral she acted like we couldn’t leave until she set up the appointment because she was afraid we weren’t going to do it ourselves.
Once we got to Stanford and discussed my daughters development vs weight gain, and our concerns about constipation (something we spoke to Dr. Busse about every appointment) we found out that she was either not paying attention or a liar. She told the Stanford team that we never mentioned constipation was a concern and went so far as to alude the fact that she cared more about our daughter than we did.
That was over 2 months ago. We have changed primaries. Standford follows our daughter through weekly phone calls. She is developing nicely according to Stanford and our Occupational Therapist and has STILL NOT been admitted to the NICU for tube feeding or further testing.
I would highly recommend finding another physician for your child.

I can’t recommend Dr. Busse enough! After two months of run around from a family doctor in the area, I took my daughter to Dr. Busse for a second opinion. In a matter of DAYS, she had gotten us in with the specialists we needed to see. Within two weeks we had a diagnosis and are currently working on a plan of action for dealing with my daughter’s condition.
Throughout the process she has been supportive and dealt with issues and questions quickly and thoroughly. She’s a good communicator and has been vital in organizing all the information coming from the various specialists.
To top it off, she’s great with the kids, down-​to-​earth, and friendly!