By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Massena Memorial Hospital lost nearly $400,000 in April, an outcome which puts them more than a quarter million dollars in the red year to date.

MMH Chief Financial Officer Patrick Facteau attributes the loss to inpatient volumes being much lower than anticipated. They discharged 157 inpatients for the month and budgeted for 213, 26 percent lower than expected. Their net loss for the month was $397,908, 493 percent below the budgeted $101,102. Expenses for the month totaled $4,556,577, .73% above the budgeted $4,590,274, according to the financial and statistical report made public at Monday’s Board of Managers meeting.

“Most of our categories were down … It’s kind of odd, we had five weekends and a holiday,” Facteau said.

“It’s almost entirely attributable to inpatient volume. Our expenses were almost exactly what we budgeted,” MMH CEO Robert Wolleben said. “Easter holiday came early, the month also had five weekends. That may not sound very significant but that’s always a factor in the hospital industry.”

Wolleben said he checked out national numbers for the month and they showed hospitals around the United States experienced similar slumps in volume.

He thinks they will rebound in May.

“May looks like it’s returning to a more normal volume and financial performance,” Wolleben said.

After about two years of consistently making money, April was the second month in a row where MMH finished in the red. They also finished March with a $108,000 loss from operations that officials at the time attributed to “one-time expenses.”

In more positive news for the hospital, their clinics are seeing more patients. Overall, their hospital-based clinics treated 5.9 percent more patients than planned for and 1.75 percent more than the same month last year, according to the financial and statistical summary. A prepared statement handed out at the Monday meeting says the North Country Women’s Health Center saw a 44 percent increase in volume for April, the MMH Medical Group saw 31 percent more and surgical an wound care is up 25 percent.

Wolleben’s CEO’s report showed the hospital is treating a more complex set of patients, which he attributed to both local health needs changing and more people seeking treatment at MMH. That is rated by what the health industry calls case mix intensity, which increases based on the complexity of care. They scored a 1.29 CMI for April 2017, up from 1.27 in April 2016. Every .1 score gets them more money from Medicaid reimbursements.

“It’s both,” Wolleben said. “When individuals get coverage, they use it.”

He said St. Lawrence County has high rates of chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and COPD. Many of those patients are now covered under the state’s recent Medicaid expansion and because of the Affordable Care Act.

“Patients who have the ability to get insurance … see doctors have procedures performed and that does roll through the system,” Wolleben said. “That’s probably similar to other hospitals in our area.”