“Avoid talking on your cell phone or having it ring at any point during the encounter–from the second you walk in the door until the time you exit the office. It is very frustrating and disruptive on a busy clinic day when a physician walks into an exam room and their patient is talking on the phone. The scenario becomes even more intolerable when they put their finger or hand up to signal that they will only be a minute and worst of all, when the phone rings during the visit and they actually answer the call!” says Craig Tifford, MD, a Yale Medicine orthopedic surgeon.

The Remedy Rx: “Whether you’re on the phone, texting or emailing, put it away and give the doctor your undivided attention. You took time away from your life, drove to the office, paid your copay for some valuable information but you’re too busy to listen to what the doctor has to say? Respect your time and respect the doctor’s. I’ve had to walk out on patients who expected me to wait for them to finish their conversation. I have other patients waiting so I move on,” says dermatologist Dr. Peterson Pierre, of the Pierre Skin Care Institute in Thousand Oaks, CA.

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