By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Massena Memorial Hospital’s chief executive had good news for the Board of Managers on Monday.

He said in addition to patient satisfaction going up, the Joint Commission lauded their lab work and they are slowly accumulating more cash reserves.

Their patient satisfaction ratings have been moved by the company that reviews them from the 12th percentile to the 18th percentile as of the end of September. That means in the prior quarter, 88 percent of other hospitals scored better, and that is down to 82 percent.

“In one quarter, a six-percentile jump is pretty substantial,” MMH CEO Robert Wollebin said.

MMH patients are given an exit survey on their perception of overall quality of their care. They are only counted toward the percentile score of the patient gives a 9 or 10, the highest rankings.

Wollebin said he thinks a simple, recently enacted tool can do a lot for patient satisfaction.

“The new whiteboards are all up now. They’re much bigger, they contain more information,” Wollebin said. “It reminds them (MMH staff) to talk to the patient about their pain level, their comfort … it’s having a positive effect.”

“There’s a lot more we have to do. We are working on redesign of some basics,” Wollebin said. “We keep working on the patient experience … We’ve made good improvement, and we want to keep the trend going.”

The Joint Commission, which gives MMH national accreditation, recently reviews the lab which “came back favorably,” other than what he called “a very, very minor citation.”

“I congratulate laboratory staff and everybody that works with laboratory staff,” Wollebin said. “We have a high degree of confidence our laboratory medicine here are one of the best in the country, quite frankly.”

On the financial side, Wollebin and CFO Patrick Facteau said things are getting better.

Wollebin said when taking his position, he made a goal to build up to 35 days cash onhand, which is up to 31.5 days’ worth.

Facteau presented a financial and statistical summary that showed continued improvement. He reported MMH finished September $71,163 in the black. That is below the anticipated $132,944 but significantly above the $375,701 MMH lost in September of last year.