My mom was at The Oaks probably for 6 weeks. It was clean and nice. It was small and fit her needs at that time. For the most part, the staff was fabulous, very helpful, and kind. She had an open wound, and they would dress that daily and help her on all that she had requested, though there were a few that were not good. They had a dining room, and you could have meals in your room. They had 3 meals a day, and you could have snacks. She walked to the dining area with a walker every day, and it was really kind of neat because you sat at the same table every time, they would actually print out the lunch menu, and you had a choice. They had activities, but I don't know what they were. However, I thought their rooms were way too small. I thought they tried to put two people in a one person room. I don't know how they would fix that other than they would just make it a one person room. There was not enough space for anybody to live. They had to share a bathroom, and the bathroom doors were heavy. There was very limited space for your clothing. However, it was very clean, and the food was really good. I thought the care was very good; it was the room that I thought was very small.

The Oak looks to be a nicer place. I like that you can get food all the time. The kitchen is always open. I think that is a plus. It is a little more upgraded, a little more modern, and a little newer. So naturally it is going to look better. I would say it is a four, but it might deserve a five; I'm just not that as familiar with it as the other facility. They called and invited both of us -- my mother and I -- over to have lunch and look around. I just glanced at the dining area, but I haven't eaten anything there. I think it is a really great idea to have an open kitchen all the time. It is kind of like a cruise ship where you can eat when you feel like it. That is convenient. The Oak I would say is better kept up.

The Oaks is closer to my home. They have several activities. The rooms are big, and the food tasted fine, but they have a specific menu and an alternative which my mother wasn’t happy with.

I was very familiar with The Oaks. It was clean and had a homey environment. My father-in-law and mother-in-law had lived there. There were also people I knew that had been living there for years and they were perfectly happy. The administrator had placed everything she got into the place. The staff was always well. They worked hard and they seemed to know what they were doing. The patients were very well taken care of. I had eaten there, and the food was good. They also had a good activities program. They had a few classes for the residents on Sunday mornings. They also had bible studies on Wednesday afternoon. A lot of them took advantage of that. They had different food rep groups or a gospel groups came in every now and then.

I chose The Oaks of Carrollton because it's closest to home. The facility is clean and well-kept. We have religious activities here. I have two meals a day and they are very good.

Although our initial visit was very positive, my mother was not entirely pleased with her stay there. The facilities were very nice, clean, charmingly decorated and seemed entirely pleasing. However, once my mother was checked in, she was not pleased. She was disconcerted because there were no clearly marked numbers on the door and she had difficulty finding her room after she left it. She also was not happy that she was confined to her room for quite a while after check-in. The staff maintained that this was because of their check-in procedures and that they were still evaluating her medical needs, but my mother insisted that there was no reason for her to be left in her room and not allowed out. According to her, she was left in there alone and was not being processed, just confined. After several unhappy days at the facility and repeated requests to be taken home, we conceded and checked her out and took care of her convalescence at home. While the staff was responsive to our phone calls and from our perspective, everything seemed to be fine, we had to trust that our mother's comments were genuine and if she felt she was not receiving acceptable care, we had to defer to her judgment. To be fair to the facility, she was recovering from extremely aggressive chemotherapy that left her with memory problems, both short and long term, and was easily frustrated, so it may have been largely due to her recovery symptoms, but we could not, in good conscience, leave her where she was unhappy.