It is well established that when people seek medical care for physical conditions, their affective state significantly impacts health and recovery. Despite this, patients’ emotional needs are often overlooked due to the prioritization of physical care and resource constraints. Robots’ social capabilities, especially robotic attentiveness, present an opportunity to address this gap and enhance patients’ experience in healthcare settings. While robots are already integrated into healthcare, they are largely leveraged for functional support, with limited attention to their potential role in addressing affective challenges. In this field study, we evaluated whether a simple attentive robot could improve the affective experience in the emergency department (ED) of a public general hospital. Participants’ waiting experience was compared across three conditions: (1) waiting next to an attentive robot; (2) waiting next to a non-attentive robot; and (3) waiting without a robot. Behavioral and self-report measures indicated that the attentive robotic behavior reduced the unpleasantness of the waiting experience. Our findings highlight the power of leveraging simple robotic attentiveness to support patients' affective state in stressful healthcare environments.