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EMMA Transferred a Call to Reception When It Should Not Have

If EMMA is transferring calls to reception that you believe she should be handling herself, this article helps you identify the most likely cause and resolve it. In most cases the transfer was correct — this article helps you check before raising a support request.

Purpose of This Article

A transfer that surprises your team is not always an error. Many transfer scenarios are intentional, built-in safety features. This article helps you identify whether a transfer was expected, and what to do if it was not.

Main Content

Before Assuming There Is a Problem

EMMA is configured to transfer certain calls immediately, regardless of any other settings. Before investigating further, it is worth checking whether the call in question falls into one of these categories.

Calls That Always Transfer Immediately

The following call types always bypass EMMA and transfer directly to reception. These cannot be changed by your practice and are not errors:

Safety and vulnerability

  • VIP or vulnerable patients on your configured list
  • Patients with an unwell baby under 12 months
  • Emergency red flag symptoms (chest pain, stroke signs, severe breathing difficulty, severe bleeding)
  • Suicidal ideation or self-harm
  • Death registration
  • Patients who state they cannot use the internet or digital services

Healthcare and professional callers

  • Hospitals, pharmacies, district nurses, community teams, health visitors, midwives, paramedics, social workers, mental health teams, the coroner's office, and other professional callers

Returning and reconnecting callers

  • Patients responding to a missed call from the surgery
  • Patients responding to an SMS from the surgery
  • Patients whose call was disconnected and are reconnecting
  • Patients chasing a callback that has not arrived

Requests for specific people

  • Named doctors, nurses, pharmacists, or other staff members

Capacity escalation

  • Patients told the surgery is at capacity who insist on speaking to someone
  • Emergency symptoms detected when daily capacity is already reached

If the call that transferred matches any of these scenarios, the transfer was correct and expected. No action is needed.

Transfers Related to Transfer Sensitivity

If the call does not match any of the above categories, the most likely reason for an unexpected transfer is your current Transfer Sensitivity Level setting.

At Level 0, EMMA transfers every patient who asks for reception immediately. At Level 1, she makes approximately 3 attempts to capture the request before transferring. If your practice is at Level 0 or Level 1 and patients are regularly asking to speak to reception, you will see a high volume of transfers — this is by design, not an error.

If you want EMMA to make more effort to capture requests before transferring, consider moving to Level 2 or Level 3. See: Understanding EMMA's Transfer Sensitivity Settings (article 2.5) and How to Request Changes to Your EMMA Configuration (article 2.15).

Other Reasons EMMA May Have Transferred

Beyond bypass scenarios and sensitivity settings, there are other situations where EMMA transfers:

  • The patient was persistent enough to exhaust all sensitivity exchanges at your current level
  • The patient's language or phrasing triggered a bypass condition — for example, a phrase that sounded like a healthcare professional identifying themselves
  • EMMA entered a loop detection state and transferred as a safety measure
  • A specific call flow at your practice is configured to route certain call types to reception

Step-by-Step Checks

Check 1: Was the transfer expected?

Review the list of always-transfer scenarios above. If the call matches any of them, the transfer was correct.

Check 2: What is your current Transfer Sensitivity Level?

Contact your account manager or check your onboarding documentation to confirm your current level. If your level is 0 or 1, a high volume of transfers is expected. Consider whether increasing the level would better serve your practice.

Check 3: Review the call recording

Log in to the dashboard and locate the call recording for the transfer in question. Listen to the recording and review the transcript to understand what happened during the call and why EMMA transferred.

  1. Log in to the dashboard at https://quantumloopai.com/ql-dashboard
  2. Locate the call by date, time, or patient name.
  3. Listen to the recording and read the transcript.
  4. Identify the point at which the transfer occurred and what was said immediately before it.

Check 4: Is this a pattern or an isolated incident?

If this is the first time you have noticed an unexpected transfer, it may be a one-off. If you are seeing a pattern of similar calls being transferred, it is worth investigating further and potentially requesting a configuration change.

If the Transfer Was Genuinely Unexpected

If you have worked through the checks above and the transfer does not match any expected scenario, contact support@quantumloopai.com or your account manager.

What to include:

  • Your surgery name and ODS code
  • The date and approximate time of the call
  • A brief description of what the patient said and why you believe the transfer should not have happened
  • Whether this is an isolated incident or a recurring pattern
  • A note of which checks you have already completed

The QuantumLoopAI team will review the call recording and advise on whether a configuration change is needed.

Troubleshooting

We are seeing a high volume of transfers and our reception team is under pressure. Review your Transfer Sensitivity Level. If you are at Level 0 or 1, increasing to Level 2 or 3 will reduce the number of calls reaching reception. Contact your account manager to request the change.

EMMA transferred a patient who asked for a named doctor. This is expected and correct. EMMA cannot route calls to individual staff members. All requests for named doctors or staff are transferred to reception.

A healthcare professional said they were transferred immediately. This is expected. All callers identifying themselves as healthcare professionals — hospitals, pharmacies, district nurses, and others — are transferred immediately to reception. This is a built-in safety feature.

We think EMMA is transferring more calls than she should be, but cannot identify a pattern. This is worth investigating. Contact your account manager and provide a sample of call dates and times. The team can run a review of your transfer rate and identify whether any configuration adjustment would help.

A patient was transferred after EMMA appeared to get stuck in a loop. EMMA has automatic loop detection. If she detects a repetitive pattern in the conversation, she transfers the call to reception as a safety measure. This is expected behaviour. The call recording will show the loop being detected.

FAQs

Can we configure EMMA to never transfer certain call types? Some transfer types are fixed safety features and cannot be changed. Others — such as how EMMA handles patients who ask for reception — can be adjusted through Transfer Sensitivity settings and call flow configuration. Contact your account manager to discuss your specific requirements.

Is a high transfer rate always a problem? Not necessarily. Some practices prefer a higher transfer rate, particularly early in their deployment when patients are still getting used to EMMA. The right transfer rate depends on your practice's goals and patient population.

How do we know what our current Transfer Sensitivity Level is? Contact your account manager or email support@quantumloopai.com and ask them to confirm your current setting.