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Article: 'Oh wait, I forgot to mention this pain' Med schools teach doctors to prevent 'doorknob' effect
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- March 28, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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The four familiar words physicians always dread come when the
office visit is ending, doctor's pen clipped back onto the white coat
pocket and hand reaching for the door.
"Oh, by the way," the patient says.
What comes next could be as innocuous as a harmless freckle -- or
a bombshell.
"You're walking out the door, and they say, 'Oh, I've got this
chest pain I meant to tell you about,' so you have to go back into
the room and start over again," said Dr. John Bonavia, a family
doctor at Columbia St. Mary's-River Glen clinic in Milwaukee.
Physicians call it "the doorknob phenomenon."
Doctors' rushed schedules and patients' natural reluctance to
reveal frightening or embarrassing symptoms make ...