[distances]

> The clinic where I practice requires making a telephone number and email available to patients

I wonder if contacting your doctor directly is a US thing? Before this discussion I had never heard of such an option. I definitely don't have any way of directly contacting any medical staff, neither a nurse nor a doctor, it will have to be through an appointment.

This might finally explain why this "ask your doctor" is so often repeated online as a realistic option? You definitely won't ask your doctor about every minor thing if it's behind an appointment.