I have tremendous respect for the medical profession. Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals save lives each and every day. So when I learned that emergency room doctors are receiving the ‘just a minute’ finger from patients engrossed in cell phone conversations, I was more than a bit shocked.

In a delightful post at KevinMd.com, Dr. Edwin Leap muses about this subject in detail. But after being put on ‘standby’ by patients, he’s developed a measure of revenge: When a patient gives him the ‘wait a minute’ finger, an insult he equates to being shown the middle finger, he walks away without seeing the patient, figuring they must not be in such bad shape if they aren’t willing to put down the phone. He recalls a particularly notable conversation from one patient: “‘yeah, Clarice, the doctor is finally here. What? Sure, Lasagna will be great.’”

At first reaction, his response seems a bit harsh. But think about it this way: The emergency room exists to treat patients facing life and death conditions, not a chatty Cathy who, in all likelihood, suffers from little more than a sore ankle and an overactive voice box.

So, as I see it, the takeaway from the blog post is this: Showing a busy doctor the ‘wait a minute’ finger is just as offensive as showing them the middle finger, so if you want to get treated, don’t do it.

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