In my experience, those SPs are trying to make a point to you by acting that way - which is that there's some underlying issue that's leading to that terseness which you're supposed to suss out.
I remember one we had where the cc was headache, and the SP was terse to the point of hostility. After getting nowhere in the first few questions, I put my old carts list down, looked him in the eye, and asked point blank what else was worrying him and why he didn't trust me, at which point he was allowed to fill in the whole back story of his father who had died from a brain aneurysm, which was making him terrified of these headaches. After that he opened up and we got the rest of the checklist done.
The point is to get you to learn to pick up on cues and connect with the patient, rather than just hammering away with your standardized questions.
Remember that if someone you've never met before is upset or hostile to you right off the bat, there's something else that they're upset about, not you. Doubly so for patients, because they've sought you out for help, but may react less than politely because they're concerned about other things that you are unaware of and so get edgy with whoever's in front of them.
So get off script for a second with those folks and ask what's bothering them, and then you'll probably have more luck getting your regular questions answered.
