Can remote or virtual care help fight the coronavirus?  Local health experts are expanding a new telemedicine service.  

Rochester Regional Health has been using telemedicine for two decades.

"Care Now" is a new program originally launched for employees, but is now being offered more broadly for all patients.

Health experts here say it's another tool to help manage patients more efficiently. Patients who think they have coronavirus symptoms can get a medical consult without ever leaving their homes.  

“We're telling our patients to call their primary care office and they will speak to a triage nurse. That triage nurse will make a determination about whether or not they are a patient that would benefit from a telehealth visit and benefit from being able to stay home and then they'll be offered that if it's appropriate. Otherwise, we will appropriately triage those patients to the emergency room or urgent care or to come into the office if we feel that they are not a risk to themselves or to others." said Dr. Bridgette Weifling of Rochester Regional Health.

The goal of these video visits is to cut down on people flooding emergency rooms with concerns over contracting the coronavirus.