A Patient Called Outside Opening Hours and Was Not Handled Correctly

Purpose of This Article

Out-of-hours call handling issues are typically caused by a misconfiguration in the Auto Scheduler or a manual toggle error. This article helps your team identify the cause quickly and get the correct configuration in place.

Main Content

How EMMA Handles Out-of-Hours Calls

EMMA only answers calls within her configured operating hours. Outside of those hours, calls revert to your existing telephony fallback arrangement — for example, forwarding to a designated mobile or ringing directly at reception.

EMMA's operating hours are controlled in two ways:

Auto Scheduler — EMMA activates and deactivates automatically at the times you have configured for each day of the week
Manual toggle — EMMA can be switched on or off immediately from the dashboard at any time

See: How to Configure EMMA's Operating Hours (article 2.2) and How to Enable or Disable EMMA from Your Dashboard (article 2.1).

Two Types of Out-of-Hours Issue

There are two distinct problems your practice may encounter:

Type 1 — EMMA answered a call when she should not have A patient called outside of your configured hours but EMMA answered and handled the call. This means EMMA was active when she should not have been.

Type 2 — EMMA did not answer a call when she should have A patient called during your opening hours but EMMA did not answer. This means EMMA was inactive when she should have been active.

Work through the checks for the relevant scenario below.

Step-by-Step Checks

Type 1 — EMMA Answered When She Should Not Have

Check 1: Review your Auto Scheduler settings

Log in at https://quantumloopai.com/ql-dashboard
Navigate to Settings, then EMMA Settings.
Review the Auto Scheduler. Check the configured start and end times for each day.
Confirm whether the time the patient called falls within a currently active window.

If the Auto Scheduler shows EMMA should have been inactive at that time, move to Check 2.

Check 2: Check the manual toggle

If the Auto Scheduler was correctly configured but EMMA was still active, check whether the manual toggle was left switched on. The manual toggle overrides the Auto Scheduler — if EMMA was manually enabled and the scheduler reached its end time without a manual disable, EMMA may have remained active.

Check whether a member of your team manually enabled EMMA and did not switch her off at the end of the period.

Check 3: Was this a bank holiday or planned closure?

The Auto Scheduler runs on a recurring weekly schedule and does not account for one-off closures such as bank holidays or training days. If the patient called on a day when the surgery was closed but EMMA was still scheduled to be active, you will need to manually disable EMMA on such days in future.

For recurring irregular closures, the recommended approach is to use the manual toggle on those days rather than adjusting the Auto Scheduler. See: How to Configure EMMA's Operating Hours (article 2.2).

Type 2 — EMMA Did Not Answer When She Should Have

Check 1: Review your Auto Scheduler settings

Navigate to Settings, then EMMA Settings.
Check the Auto Scheduler times for the relevant day.
Confirm whether the configured hours match when you expected EMMA to be active.
If the times are incorrect, update them now.

Check 2: Check the manual toggle

If the Auto Scheduler is correct, check whether EMMA was manually disabled and not re-enabled. A manual disable overrides the Auto Scheduler — if EMMA was switched off manually, she will not turn back on automatically until she is manually re-enabled.

Check whether the toggle in EMMA Settings is currently set to enabled or disabled.

Check 3: Was EMMA turned off for a specific reason?

Check whether EMMA was intentionally disabled — for example, for a planned closure or a previous technical issue — and was not turned back on afterwards.

Reviewing the Specific Call

To understand exactly what happened for the call in question:

Log in to the dashboard and locate the relevant call by date and time.
Check the call recording or activity log to confirm whether EMMA answered the call and what she said.
If EMMA answered and handled the call, confirm what the patient reported as the issue.
If EMMA did not answer, check whether the call appears in the dashboard at all, which would confirm whether it reached the platform.

Fixing Your Configuration

Once you have identified the cause, update your configuration to prevent recurrence:

To fix incorrect scheduled hours: update the Auto Scheduler with the correct times for each day
To fix a manual toggle error: re-enable or disable EMMA as needed and consider whether your team needs clearer processes around manual use
To handle bank holidays and closures: build a reminder into your practice admin process to manually disable EMMA on closed days

Troubleshooting

Our Auto Scheduler looks correct but EMMA answered outside our configured hours. If the scheduled end time passed but EMMA remained active, check whether EMMA was manually enabled after the scheduled deactivation. The manual toggle takes precedence over the scheduler. Contact support@quantumloopai.com if the scheduler appears to have malfunctioned.

We forgot to turn EMMA off on a bank holiday and she answered patient calls all day. This is a common scenario. The Auto Scheduler does not account for one-off closures. Going forward, build a reminder into your team's bank holiday process to manually disable EMMA. Check the dashboard for any submissions made on that day and action them as normal.

EMMA is answering calls but telling patients the surgery is closed. Your out-of-hours message may be configured to play even during active hours. Or EMMA may be active but your operating hours message is set incorrectly. Contact your account manager or support@quantumloopai.com to review your out-of-hours message configuration.

Our configured hours changed recently but EMMA is still using the old times. Changes to the Auto Scheduler take effect from the next scheduled activation or deactivation. If you made a change and EMMA did not reflect it, confirm the change was saved correctly by reviewing the settings again. If the times look correct but EMMA is still behaving according to the old schedule, contact support@quantumloopai.com.

A patient called during hours but says EMMA told them the surgery was closed. Check your Auto Scheduler and confirm the patient called within your configured hours. Also check whether EMMA was manually disabled. If your configuration looks correct and EMMA should have been active, review the call recording in the dashboard and contact support@quantumloopai.com with the call details.

FAQs

Can EMMA be configured to handle calls outside of opening hours, for example with an out-of-hours message? Yes. EMMA can be configured to play an out-of-hours message when patients call outside of your configured hours. She can also be set to capture requests outside of hours if needed. Contact your account manager to discuss your out-of-hours requirements.

What happens to patients who call when EMMA is inactive? Calls revert to your existing telephony fallback arrangement — for example, diverting to a mobile or ringing through to reception. Patients are not left without a way to contact the surgery.

Can EMMA be configured to only accept certain call types outside of hours? Yes. For example, specific prescription call windows can be configured so EMMA only accepts prescription requests during certain hours, while other call types are handled differently. Contact your account manager to discuss.

Can we pre-configure bank holidays so EMMA is automatically turned off? Not currently. The Auto Scheduler runs on a recurring weekly schedule and does not support one-off date exceptions. The recommended approach is to manually disable EMMA on bank holidays using the dashboard toggle.

Does changing the Auto Scheduler affect calls that are already in progress? No. EMMA will complete any call in progress. The schedule change only affects new incoming calls after the updated time takes effect.