funnily enough the hospital here has "no phones permitted" signs EVERYWHERE but the waiting areas. if we see someone taking photos we take their phone.
it's signage that allows us to do that; we're not only discouraging Munchausen's (photo taking while claiming high pain level, is considered part of the history of that patient, by the way)
we're also preventing people from taking photos of other patients and violating their privacy.
That said, people just looking at their phone, reading, texting, listening to stuff- we leave them alone. The signs just give us the right to take the phone away, we can selectively apply this.
There's a difference between malingering, Munchausen's, and drug addiction. We treat the three very differently at every level of care, really. We have a few frequent flier drug addicts, the ER will provide them a maintenance dose, information on recovery treatment, a sandwich/soup, and wound checks, as well as some alcohol wipes and things to take along. I've seen narcan handed out too.
malingerers want a note or proof of illness or injury, to show their boss/spouse/insurance company. we do the best we can to make sure that LACK OF OBVIOUS INJURY is included.
Munchausen's patients are totally different and fairly obvious once you've dealt with a few. Their illnesses aren't treatable, photos, bragging, excitement about procedures others find frightening. We work with them differently; after all, they can still get actually sick.
All of these people could still be actually ill, so we test to treat, and draw our conclusions as we go. Kidney stones are a bitch and there are only a handful of things that rate a genuine 10, stones are one of them. It's one of the first things we test for, if the pain is that high and localized in the right area.
basically we treat even our worst patients as if every illness is real until proven otherwise. I've seen some really jaded er doctors though. I can't blame them. it's really the luck of the draw if you get the good or bad- but patients can always ask for another opinion (even if it seems to piss off the current doctor) and you may get more perception from the next one. Or you'll get an even more bitter one.
the ER is for acute, not chronic stuff. red flags when a chronically ill person arrives, if nothing is broken or bleeding.
That probably harboured every known disease and several completely new ones. 
