Local Business is Chicken Soup for Parent Panic and Pocketbook

Kathy Kaufmann didn't know what to do. Her child was sick, it was late and outside her door a fierce blizzard made the roads nearly impassable. It's a parent's nightmare: Having a sick child with little help and few options available. "I couldn't get out of my driveway," Kaufmann said. "We were stuck and getting desperate." To make things worse, Kaufmann wasn't sure exactly what was wrong with her daughter. "She was vomiting, she had a high temperature, and she wasn't responding to the medicine we were giving her."

Things looked bleak. That's when help arrived in a Suburban-driving pediatrician who brought the doctor's office to Kathy Kaufmann's home. The Kaufmann's home wasn't the only house-call Dr. Michael Milobsky made during the December blizzard. Over the course of two weeks following the first snowstorm, Dr. Milobsky made dozens of house-calls to parents who all needed urgent care treatment for their sick children, but were unable to get to an emergency room.

Visiting patient homes is all in a day's work for Greenwood Village-based Dr. Milobsky, even when the snow isn't flying. It is part of his new service called, "Chicken Soup." But this isn't your mother's chicken soup. It's a new pediatric home care service started by Dr. Milobsky, a trained pediatrician who noticed that parents' urgent care options become very limited after hours.

"Bringing a sick child into an emergency room is expensive and can take hours before you ever get to see a doctor," Milobsky says. "The other option is one of those urgent care clinics, and while they are fine in a pinch, those doctors aren't pediatricians."

Dr. Milobsky says, in cases where a parent is stumped and frantically looking for help, a doctor house-call is a much better option than going to a doctor who doesn't have experience dealing with children. "They're all fine doctors, but treating children is different from treating adults, and I think every parent would prefer a skilled pediatrician over a general ear, nose and throat doctor."

Dr. Milobsky realized that what parents really needed was a doctor to treat their child in the comfort of their own home. But this house-call goes far beyond the country doctor toting a little black bag and a handful of remedies. Chicken Soup provides modern-day equipment to handle nearly every non life-threatening emergency.

"We can handle the croup, asthma attacks, severe cold and flu, injuries, just about any condition that might lead you to visit an emergency room or urgent care clinic," Milobsky says. Saving time, and keeping the patient comfortable is key to successfully treating sick children before things go from bad to worse, particularly in the midst of the cold and flu season.

Dr. Milobsky says his service isn't meant to go head-to-head with hospitals. "A clinical setting is always the best option, but in the middle of the night, having a doctor come to your home is the next best thing."

The typical Chicken Soup visit begins with a phone consultation. However, unlike other after-hour medical services, parents speak live to an experienced pediatrician to determine if a house-call, or something more serious, is needed. "Most after-hour hospital hotlines are skewed to force the parent to come into the emergency room for treatment," Milobsky says. "Our doctors listen to the symptoms, and determine if the family requires a visit. In many cases, our doctors can tell the parents to simply wait until morning and go see their regular doctor. In other cases, the situation is so bad that the child needs to be taken to the hospital. Our sole purpose is providing the best possible care for the child."

In cases where hospitalization is required, Chicken Soup personnel can bypass the emergency room and directly admit the sick child into the hospital. Because of his work at hospitals around the metro area, such as Children's, Presbyterian St. Luke's, Swedish, Aurora Medical Center, Sky Ridge Medical Center and Littleton Hospital, Dr. Milobsky works with pediatricians and medical staffers in order to quickly admit sick children into various hospitals for much needed urgent care.

"It's a wonderful option to have," says Meredith Winfield, a parent of two in Englewood. "I may never use the service, but just knowing it is available eases my mind. I worry every time my children get sick about whether or not I should take them to the hospital."

Winfield says late at night is often the scariest time for a parent. "I feel helpless when they're sick. I want to help them, but I also know it might not be worth a trip to the emergency room."

Dr. Milobsky says his service has already helped families struggling through this year's cold and flu season, as well as families with special needs children who aren't easily transported to a hospital or emergency room, particularly in the middle of the night.

As a father, Dr. Milobsky says he understands parents' fears and tailored Chicken Soup to meet the needs of parents in every way. "This isn't a service you call when your child gets a sniffle or stubs a toe," Milobsky says. "Parents know how to treat just about anything that requires a simple hug and a kiss and some tender loving care. However, when your child begins to run a high fever at one o'clock in the morning, parents need help."

Chicken Soup services begin at 5 p.m. every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. "Sick kids don't take a break, so we won't either," says Milobsky.

For more information call or go to www.chickensoupdenver.com or www.milobsky.com.