Patient characteristics and compliance with positive airway pressure therapy during New York City's 2020 COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders: The NYU comprehensive epilepsy center-sleep center telemedicine experience

OBJECTIVES: We sought to evaluate the success of telemedicine during New York City's COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home period, and understand the distribution of sleep complaints seen. We also compared positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy compliance for a random patient sample to determine whether the pandemic influenced PAP usage. METHODS: Encounters from the stay-at-home period were reviewed for patient characteristics and clinician impressions, and were compared to administrative data from the prior 2.5 months (“control” period). PAP compliance was compared between the periods for a randomly selected group of forty patients. RESULTS: The telemedicine show rate was 89.37%. Sleep apnea then insomnia were the predominant diagnoses. Insomnia complaints were higher during the stay-at-home period. PAP compliance and AHI were similar between the periods. CONCLUSIONS: Sleep apnea and insomnia were common complaints; insomnia was significantly more common during the pandemic. PAP compliance was similar between the two periods for a randomly selected cohort.