With a population of 116,272 people, Athens, Georgia is a medium size city. Surprisingly, there are just 4 nursing homes in the city, which is not quite as many as we expected in a city of this size. This city received a city grade of C based on its overall nursing home quality. This is not a strong city score. This city's city grade was a bit better than the city grade of nursing homes in the nearby city of Lithonia, which received an abysmal city grade. If choosing between the two, Athens looks like a better bet. One of the best aspects of this place's report card is its stellar inspection grade, which we will address in the next section.
Despite receiving a somewhat average overall grade, this city's nursing homes performed especially well in the area of inspections. In fact, some of its facilities received virtually perfect inspection reports this year. As a result, we awarded Athens one of our highest grades in that category with an A. Our inspection ratings are tied to pieces of information located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that excel in this category typically have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. The second highest grade we gave this city in any category was its short-term care rating, where we awarded it a grade of B-. In our final two categories, this place earned a C for its long-term care score and a grade of D in nursing. While we found its other categories to be respectable, this low nursing grade isn't a very good sign for nursing staffing levels.