With more people trying to avoid public places during the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals have responded by increasing the amount of doctors and specialists available for telemedicine visits.

During a press briefing Friday, Graham Snyder, medical director of infection prevention, said UPMC has had an “exponential growth” in video visits, “which allows for UPMC clinicians to provide the high quality care communities expect without patients or clinicians risking any exposure.”

Donald Yealy, chair of emergency medicine, added that video visits allow for “safe, ongoing care or even new care for many different needs.”

Video visits are now readily available for those who have a new need for care, those who have a chronic condition that needs more assessment or more care, post acute care follow-up visits and mental health aid.

Since the pandemic, video visits have dramatically increased. In fact, Yealy said in just two days, UPMC did as many telemedicine visits as they did the entire year of 2019.

“We have convenient video visit options and capabilities no matter what you need,” Yealy noted. “In addition to allowing safe care for all, both safe for patients and for our providers, the video visit allows us to be more ready with protective equipment when COVID-19 infected patients need care at the hospital.”

Video visits with primary care providers and specialists are available online and through numerous applications, including MyUPMC and UPMC Anywhere Care.

“We’re now doing more urgent visits through UMPC Anywhere Care — we do more of these visits now than we do in our urgent care settings,” Yealy explained. “We’ve seen a fivefold increase in demand and have added or redeployed physicians and other experts including advanced practice providers to meet this need.”

Not only can telemedicine benefit patients outside of the hospital, it can also enhance the capabilities to care for inpatients.

“We’re using telemedicine to support our bedside teams with virtual teams,” said Rachel Sackrowitz, M.D., chief medical officer of UPMC ICU Service Center. “So that a specialist at one hospital, say a critical care doctor here at UPMC Montefiore, can work with a clinician at a hospital all the way across the state in Susquehanna to provide care for ICU patients there.”

In addition, UPMC recently developed a telemedicine enabled infectious disease consultation company called ID Connect.

“This spinoff was developed by our infectious disease doctors and funded through UPMC enterprises,” noted Sackrowitz.

Starting Monday, ID Connect opened their call center to help hospitals during the pandemic with physician to physician infectious disease consultations for inpatients.

“The focus is on COVID-19, but these specialists are available to help with any infectious disease needs,” said Sackrowitz.

ID Connect will help avoid unnecessary patient transfers, as well as offer support and backup to bedside infectious disease physicians.

In addition to UPMC, primary care practices with Upper Allegheny Health System — at Foothills Medical Group, Omega Family Medicine and Bradford Regional Medical Services — are also offering phone and telemedicine appointments to those who want to avoid going outside of their homes during the pandemic.

“Patients interested in an alternative appointment should contact their primary care provider,” Jeff Zewe, president and CEO of Upper Allegheny Health System, explained in a press release. “Please note that not all appointments can be done via phone or telemedicine.”

Those interested in video or phone appointments should contact their provider, he noted.

“Offering this alternate way to see your provider is our response to support social distancing,” Zewe concluded.