MASSENA -- Massena Memorial Hospital officials reported a net gain of $458,346 for the month of August compared to a minor gain of $71,855 in 2015.

To date, the hospital has improved its operating gain over budget by 15 percent.

The operating gain this August is $439,770, compared to a $13,000 loss in 2015.

“Volumes in the hospital continued to increase this month, inpatient discharges are up 17 percent compared to August 2015,” he said. “The hospital’s Medicare Case Mix Index an indication of the complexity of patient illness increased as well to 1.2946.”

Facteau attributes the continued improvement in financial performance to outpatient visits. He said the Emergency Department continues with 4% growth year to date and Ambulatory Surgery cases are up 3%. Likewise other ancillary outpatient services such as Medical Imaging, Lab, Physical and Respiratory Therapy have a gain of nearly 2%.

Bob Wolleben, Chief Executive Officer said, “At MMH we pride ourselves on being a trusted provider of compassionate care to our neighbors and community members.”

“I am pleased to report this progress which reflects the combined efforts of our talented staff. The healthcare world is always changing and we need to focus beyond today to years from now so that MMH continues to serve our communities proudly. Another emphasis is bringing additional physicians to the medical staff to increase the number of patients we can serve,” he said.

Wolleben said three new physicians joined the MMH Medical Team over the past two months. That includes Dr. Aderonke Adeniyi, Cardiologist Massena Cardiology; and Family Medicine Physicians Dr. Matthew Prionas and Dr. Rohit Barreto joined the MMH Medical Group in August with Dr. Ammar Kafa and Physician Assistant Cassandra Debien-LaShomb.

At the meeting the Board of Managers approved the credentials of Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg, Obstetrician/Gynecologist. Dr. Greenberg will join the practice of North Country Women’s Health, working with Dr. Emmanuel Nwogu, OB/GYN and Nurse Midwife, Barbara Hillis, CNW.

“We have been focused on investing in the future with new equipment, and recruitment of doctors. A busier August translates into more opportunity to serve patients and reinvest into the facility and equipment,”Wolleben said.

At the meeting the board approved capital expenditures of nearly $400,000 to improve and enhance patient monitoring. This improves safety, streamlines documentation allows the nursing staff to focus on patients and not a manual documentation system.

The first piece of equipment is the new Masimo Vital Signs Monitoring system for the nursing units to include ICU, Telemetry, Medical and Surgical. This system allows for the patient vital signs to be interfaced into the Electronic Medical Record from the bedside.

The board also approved the purchase of the Phillips OB Trace View, which is a central monitoring system for maternity. This system interfaces with the patient’s electronic medical record, once again freeing the nursing staff to concentrate on patient care, while the system interfaces all monitoring with the EMR.