Nursing homes in Columbia and the Midlands

What is a nursing home in South Carolina?

A nursing home is a DPH-licensed facility providing 24-hour licensed nursing, rehabilitation and help with daily living for people whose medical needs exceed what a CRCF may handle; nearly all are also certified by CMS for Medicare and Medicaid.

its data lists 28 licensed nursing homes in the six Midlands counties with 3,706 beds, and CMS rates 27 of them, 8 at four or five stars overall (Care Compare data as of October 1, 2026).

Who needs a nursing home rather than assisted living?

People who need a licensed nurse every day, complex wound care, IV medications, or full hands-on help with every daily activity, and people recovering from surgery or a stroke who need daily therapy.

Many residents come for short-term rehab after a hospital stay and go home; others live there long term.

What does a nursing home cost in South Carolina?

CareScout's 2025 South Carolina medians are about $9,034 a month for a semi-private room and $9,612 for a private room; Medicare covers short skilled stays and Medicaid pays long stays for eligible residents.

Ask whether a home accepts Healthy Connections Medicaid for long stays and how Medicaid beds are assigned.

How should we choose a Midlands nursing home?

Use CMS data to build a short list, looking at health inspection results, staffing hours and turnover as well as the overall stars, then visit at a mealtime and in the evening and ask about staff consistency.

Our nursing home pages compare each home's staffing and turnover with the six-county median and list DPH enforcement orders since January 2025.

How is a rehab unit different from long-term floors?

Rehab units serve short-stay patients with daily therapy and a goal of going home, usually paid by Medicare; long-term floors serve residents who live there, paid privately or by Medicaid.

CMS publishes separate short-stay and long-stay quality measures, so read the ones that match your parent's situation.

Where are the Midlands' nursing homes concentrated?

Mostly in Northeast and North Columbia, West Columbia around Lexington Medical Center, and Lexington, with smaller clusters in Camden, Ridgeway and Chapin and single homes in Saluda, St. Matthews and Hopkins.

Proximity to family usually matters more than a small difference in stars, so start with the homes within a reasonable drive and then compare their CMS records.

Where is nursing homes licensed across the Midlands?

This is how DPH's license data spreads nursing homes across Richland, Lexington, Kershaw, Fairfield, Saluda and Calhoun counties.