To understand the actual roles played by pulmonologists in the provision of coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) medical care and to clarify the challenges in their work environments, we conducted a questionnaire survey involving 848 institutions. Overall, 216 institutions (25.5%) responded. Of the institutions with experience in treating confirmed cases of COVID-19, 41.5% entrusted their pulmonology departments with primary responsibility for treating >76% of cases. These results demonstrate that pulmonologists have been playing a central role in handling COVID-19 cases in the majority of these institutions. Although 57.4% of medical institutions have reduced their regular medical care work in respiratory medicine due to COVID-19, 62.5% responded that they experienced an increase in their workload due to the COVID-19-related additional duties. Owing to the excessive workload, 85.2% of institutions were under heavy stress because of the increased risk of infection due to the shortage of personal protective equipment. Furthermore, 28.7% of institutions responded that some of their staff members or patients had been subjected to some form of harassment concerning COVID-19.