The Oaks - Athens Skilled Nursing
490 Kathwood Dr, Athens GA 30607 · (706) 355-7400 · 90.06% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
The Oaks - Athens Skilled Nursing is a large nursing home located in Athens, Georgia. We gave this facility an overall grade of B. A grade of this caliber requires solid marks in most areas. You can certainly do much worse than this nursing home. This nursing home's impressive report card was highlighted by its inspection grade, which is addressed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 148 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
This nursing home received a quality overall score as described above, but we especially want to point out its excellent government inspections in recent years. We gave it an A in this category. Inspection scores are tied to several datapoints found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that receive favorable grades in this area typically have very few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these places should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This tells you the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Remember that deficiency-free inspections are rare in the industry.
Short-term Care Quality
This nursing home received an impressive short-term care score as well. We gave it one of our better scores in that area with a grade of B+. In determining these short-term care ratings, we look at the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. Our purpose is to formulate a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different facilities. One of this nursing home's strengths is physical therapy. We found that it offers at least one and a half times as many hours of physical therapy than most facilities. Finally, we looked at the percentage of patients who eventually returned home from this facility. On top of excelling in the area of physical therapy, we found that it fared as well as just about any nursing home in the nation with 63 percent of its residents returning home. Most nursing homes are below 50 percent in this statistic.
Long-term Care Quality
Turning to the next area, this nursing home also earned a grade of B+ for its long-term care rating. This is an above average grade in this area. When facilities receive a grade in this range in this category it generally means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. Once we assessed the volume of nursing care, we then looked at the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 96.42857 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia sadly is often a life or death ailment for nursing home patients so we like it when a facility does not leave its residents vulnerable. The last statistic we looked at was the facility's hospitalization rate. Here we found that this facility had 2.76 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. While this wasn't as strong as most of its other scores in this area, this number can be skewed for some facilities due to the medical complexity of residents.
Nurse Quality
This nursing home's least impressive area was nursing, which is the final category we assessed. Unfortunately, we gave it an abysmal F in this area. In spite of some excellent grades in other areas, this score is still somewhat concerning so we felt obligated to point it out. Nursing ratings are largely associated with a facility's nurse staffing. Quantity of nursing care does not appear to be the problem here. Based on the data, it looks like this place provides an above average 3.9 hours per resident daily. This is more nursing care than most facilities offer. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed better than average in this area. This is often a good indicator of how carefully a facility's nursing staff is tending to its patients. Major falls can often be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
The Oaks - Athens Skilled Nursing Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percentage of residents that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are damage to the skin resulting from remaining in one position for too long.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This figure tells you the percent of long-term residents which suffered a fall leading to major injury. This is one of the statistics we use in calculating our nursing ratings.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percentage of residents who sustained a urinary tract infection. UTI's are considered by many in the nursing home industry to be a measure of the quality of nursing care . UTI's are often caused by a facility with lower levels of hygiene. Nevertheless, this metric could be skewed for certain nursing homes due to varying reporting standards for infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This metric tells you the percent of long-term residents which are given antipsychotic medication. Excessive reliance on these medications may mean a facility is using these drugs to subdue residents in scenarios where such medications aren't medically indicated. However, some facilities need to rely on these drugs due to having more residents with cognitive disorders.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is the percentage of residents who were given antianxiety drugs. These drugs are given to residents experiencing anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term residents who are showing signs of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term care patients that were vaccinated against pneumonia and flu.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay patients who needed more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as dressing and bathing.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This is the percentage of residents who maintained mobility over time. Optimizing mobility is usually a great sign for residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric measures the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This is the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This metric tracks the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This metric is a measure of the percentage of short-term stay residents who saw functional improvements.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better