Más Bakersfield

20 making a difference: Health

In a time when house calls seem a thing of the past, Dr. Javier Bustamante once made a personal visit to a premature jaundice baby in need of Bilirubin lights — on the day before Thanksgiving, no less.

After seeing other patients in the office, Bustamante himself picked up the special lights, delivered them to the family’s home, even performed a check-up on the baby right then and there. He also made arrangements for a nurse to give the parents training on the treatment, keeping the baby from returning to the hospital.

It’s the kind of story that motivates many Kern County parents to name Bustamante as a top pediatrician in Bakersfield, making a direct difference in the health of children here.

Many other stories abound about Bustamante’s willingness to go out of his way for patients and his excellence in diagnosing illness.

“I wanted to be a doctor ever since I was quite young,” said Bustamante, now 52. “I’ve always enjoyed children, and I think for my temperament, it’s the best thing I could have chosen. It’s fun. Seeing young kids, especially newborns, is a unique experience. I think they keep me young, too.”

Originally from Peru, Bustamante went to medical school in his native country and worked there for a year.

While in Peru, he studied Malaria in the Amazon jungle.

Poverty in that region meant that diseases advanced quickly and manifested themselves in stages not often seen in America, he said.

“You don’t get to see that here. So, I benefited from that. I think it has helped me in detecting whether something is serious or not,” Bustamante said.

He later relocated to the United States and began residency training at UC Davis, moving to Bakersfield in July of 1985.

Bustamante credits an affinity to technology with his success.

“One of the things that has helped me the most — organize my life, run my business — is my attraction to technology from early on, even the late ‘70s,” he said. “During residency training at UC Davis in 1984, I was one of the few, including professors, who had a personal computer.”

Since Bustamante began practicing medicine, technology has changed drastically — from even the smallest of things like cell phones to digital imaging for x-rays.

And now, medicine is on the cusp of a bigger change: moving to an electronic medical record for each patient, he said.

“In healthcare, we are way behind,” Bustamante said. “We still have a paper chart and there is no way to look back at data as you can in almost any other field.”

Bustamante also credits San Dimas Medical Group with helping him to get his practice started and locate below the birthing center at Mercy Southwest Hospital.

“This location for me is a blessing. Babies are delivered up there and we do see newborns before they go home,” he said.

This doctor always brings things back to the focus of his pediatrics practice, however.

So, while he is concerned about technology and advances in medicine, he hasn’t forgotten why he chose this area of medicine in the first place.

“Kids are wonderful because there’s still a lot of nature in them — they’re innocent, most are very healthy, fun, there’s a lot of happiness and life.”