Running a paediatric ambulatory sleep service in a pandemic and beyond.
Clin Otolaryngol
; 47(3): 433-439, 2022 05.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1691597
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
In response COVID-19, re-establishing safe elective services was prioritised in the UK. We assess the impact on face-to-face hospital attendance, cost and efficiency of implementing a virtual sleep clinic (intervention 1) to screen for children requiring level 3 ambulatory sleep studies using newly implemented ENT-UK guidelines for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) investigation (intervention 2).OBJECTIVES:
(1) compare the proportion of children attending sleep clinic undertaking a sleep study before and after implementation of these interventions; (2) compare clinic cancellations and first-time success rates of sleep studies before and after intervention.DESIGN:
Retrospective analysis.SETTING:
District general hospital paediatric sleep clinic.PARTICIPANTS:
Children aged 3 months to 16 years referred to sleep clinic by ENT for investigation of OSA over 3 months immediately following interventions (1 June 2020 - 1 September 2020) to the same period in the previous year (1 June 2019 - 1 September 2019). MAIN OUTCOMEMEASURES:
Number of children attending sleep clinic, date of birth/age of children attending sleep clinic, number of children undergoing sleep study, diagnostic outcomes, number of appointment cancellations, number of first-time sleep study failures.RESULTS:
Post intervention, there was a significant reduction in the proportion of children undertaking ambulatory sleep studies, and nonsignificant reductions in appointment cancellations and in first-time sleep study failures.CONCLUSIONS:
The introduction of the virtual sleep clinic meant that only those children requiring a sleep study attended a face-to-face appointment, which led to reduced face-to-face attendance. There were also unintended cost-effectiveness and efficiency benefits, with potential longer-term learning implications for the wider sleep community and other diagnostic services.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Sleep Apnea, Obstructive
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Child
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Clin Otolaryngol
Journal subject:
Otolaryngology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Coa.13918
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