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Study: Doctors Interrupt Patients In The First 11 Seconds

BOSTON (CBS) -- If you feel like your doctor doesn't really listen to you, you may be right.

A new study analyzed 112 doctor-patient encounters at general practices including at the Mayo Clinic and found that physicians only spend about 11 seconds on average listening to patients before interrupting them.

A lot of doctors are under time constraints which often means they want to get to the heart of the matter as quickly as possible. But it can off-putting if a patient is trying to get something off their chest and a doctor stops them mid-sentence soon after they enter the room.

Doctors need to be more mindful of this and should let a patient say their piece before jumping in. In the end, it's better for patient care and satisfaction.

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