By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- As monthly summaries show Massena Memorial Hospital’s financial picture continues to improve, they are doing more surgeries and have surpassed the number they performed last year.

CEO Robert Wolleben’s monthly report, which he gave to the Board of Managers on Monday, says they have performed 949 operations so far this year, compared to 893 for all of last year.

“It’s an encouraging sign. At this time last year, surgeries were meandering below where we anticipated,” he told the board on Monday.

He said that’s partially due to their using a new anesthesiology group for surgeries.

“They manage patients that previously wouldn’t have been sent to MMH,” according to Wolleben.

And their surgery suite is about to get an upgrade. He said they anticipate leasing a monitor that displays endoscopic procedures in 4K-quality picture.

“Think of a 4K TV where you can see the sunflower seeds coming out of his mouth and count the stripes on him. It’s that good,” Wolleben said.

He said admissions are below where they want them, but most of that is because they need an obstetrician.

“It’s not that alarming … we continue to recruit for an obstetrician,” Wolleben said.

For May, MMH’s books showed a $69,111 net gain, under their anticipated $168,695. Year-to-date, they show a $416,783 net gain, slightly under their budgeted $456,807.