By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Patient satisfaction ratings at Massena Memorial Hospital are going up, according to numbers presented by MMH CEO Robert Wollebin at Monday night’s Board of Managers meeting.

He said of the patients responding to a survey about the emergency department, overall satisfaction and likelihood of recommending MMH during the first quarter of 2015, nine of 69 in each of the three categories rated a nine or 10 out of 10. He noted that from April 1 through the middle of May, 31 patients of 36 responding to the emergency department survey rated nine or 10.

During the same period of the second quarter, 13 of 28 rated a 9 or 10 when asked how likely they are to recommend MMH, according to Wollebin.

To help boost those numbers, the CEO said he has formed a team to develop a protocol or dealing with emergency department patients.

“It’s if you were to come in as a patient, what would you expect from a staff member?” Wollebin said.

“I can’t tell you what those standards will be,” he said, noting that the team just recently met for the first time. “An example could be, ‘We’re not going to call anybody a wacko.’ It will be more scientific than that.

“We want the staff to think in terms of how they want to be presented to the community.”