Robocalls wreak havoc at hospitals and put patients’ lives in danger: report

Imagine this: During a major public health crisis, such as an outbreak – when doctors, administrators and health care field workers need to be in contact – a hospital’s phone system goes down, potentially putting lives at risk.

That’s a scenario that officials at Tufts Medical Center, located in Boston, as well as other health care facilities, are likely concerned about as they struggle with an inundation of robocalls.

The hospital, which is a center for biomedical research and the main teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine, received more than 4,500 robocalls in a two-hour period the morning of April 30, 2018, according to The Washington Post. The messages featured a voice speaking in Mandarin and threatened deportation if someone did not provide certain personal information...