Columbia Senior AdvisorHow do I confirm a Columbia assisted living facility is licensed?
Open DPH's Find a Facility map, pick the community residential care facility layer, and search by name or by zooming to the address; the facility's pin shows its license number, expiration date, licensed beds, administrator and the regulation it operates under.
The same map exports a whole facility type to a spreadsheet, which is the file our directory is built from. If a home that calls itself assisted living or a personal care home does not appear among CRCFs, it is not licensed as one. Unlicensed boarding and care homes surface in the Midlands from time to time; report one to DPH Healthcare Quality at 1-800-922-6735.
Where are DPH's enforcement orders published?
On DPH's Healthcare Quality Enforcement Actions page, as a monthly PDF of administrative and consent orders; each entry names the facility and licensee, summarizes the inspections and violations, and states the penalty and required corrections.
Between January 2025 to September 2026, DPH's monthly reports list 23 orders against CRCFs statewide; 3 of them name a CRCF in our six counties. Every entry also lists the same party's prior orders over five years. A consent order means the operator agreed to the outcome instead of contesting it. Our facility pages list every order we matched from January 2025 on; older years are in DPH's archive. Penalties follow the schedule in Section 302 of Regulation 60-84:
| Violation within 36 months | Class I | Class II | Class III |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | $500-1,500 | $300-800 | $100-300 |
| 2nd | $1,000-3,000 | $500-1,500 | $300-800 |
| 3rd | $2,000-5,000 | $1,000-3,000 | $500-1,500 |
| 4th | $5,000 | $2,000-5,000 | $1,000-3,000 |
| 5th | $5,000 | $5,000 | $2,000-5,000 |
| 6th | $5,000 | $5,000 | $5,000 |
Source: Regulation 60-84, Section 302.F; DPH may alternatively proceed under S.C. Code 44-7-320(C).
How can I get a CRCF's inspection report?
Request it in writing from DPH Healthcare Quality; Section 202.E of Regulation 60-84 makes inspection and investigation reports, with the facility's response and with individuals' names redacted, available to the public.
You can also simply ask the facility, which must keep its latest report and signed plan of correction on hand. A building that will not show you either has told you something useful. Since DPH inspects CRCFs when it sees fit rather than on a calendar, ask the date of the last visit and whether it was routine or prompted by a complaint.
How do I check a Midlands nursing home's inspections and stars?
Use CMS Care Compare, which lists each certified nursing home's star ratings, latest standard health inspection date, deficiency counts, staffing hours, staff turnover and fines; DPH surveyors carry out those federal inspections in South Carolina.
Our nursing home pages reproduce the Care Compare figures with their data date and compare each home with the six-county median. Several Columbia-area homes appear under a different name in CMS's file than on their DPH license, often after an operator change, so search Care Compare by street address if a name search comes up empty.
How do I verify an administrator's license in South Carolina?
Search the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation's online lookup for the Board of Long Term Health Care Administrators, which licenses both CRCF and nursing home administrators and shows license status and any discipline.
DPH's record names the administrator for each license, and LLR's lookup confirms that the person's license is current. One administrator change is ordinary. Several in a year deserves a question. For nursing homes, CMS also reports how many administrators left during its measurement period, and our nursing home pages show that count.
Side by side
| Public records will show you | Public records will not show you | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Number, expiration, beds, administrator (DPH map) | Monthly price or room availability |
| Penalties | DPH administrative and consent orders, monthly | Every minor citation that was corrected |
| CRCF inspections | The full report, on written request | An online inspection history |
| Nursing homes | CMS stars, deficiencies, staffing, fines | How a unit feels at 2 a.m. |
Drawn from S.C. Code Regs. 60-84, DPH Healthcare Quality and SCDHHS publications, CareScout, CMS, the VA and the regional aging agencies cited in the text; our editorial standards explain how we check them.
