Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Quantity and Characteristics of Ophthalmology Consults.

<b><i>Purpose:</i></b> To assess the COVID-19 exposure risk to consulting ophthalmologists and the pandemic effect on consultations at one of the most impacted hospital systems in New York. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> In a retrospective, cross-sectional study, ophthalmology consult notes and COVID-19 test results were collected from the electronic medical record from February to May in 2019 and 2020. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Of 2,215 total notes analyzed, consults decreased from 1,374 to 841 between years (<i>p</i> = 0.0002). In 2020, 22.5% of all consults were COVID tested and 2.4% were positive within 2 weeks of in-person evaluation. In 2020, 1.8% of consults were electronic. Ventilated patients increased between years (7.5% to 10.8%; <i>p</i> = 0.04). <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Although consultations decreased during the Spring 2020 peak, the majority (98.2%) remained as in-person evaluations. While few patients tested COVID positive, this likely reflects the limited availability of testing early in the pandemic. Consulting ophthalmologists remained at high risk of COVID-19 exposure during the pandemic peak.