South Carolina

Grounds stated in the sources

S.C. Code § 44-81-40(D): "A resident may be transferred or discharged only for medical reasons, for the welfare of the resident or for the welfare of other residents of the facility, or for nonpayment and must be given written notice of not less than thirty days, except that when the health, safety, or welfare of other residents of the facility would be endangered by the thirty-day notice requirement, the time for giving notice must be that which is practicable under the circumstances." Three grounds, stated in one sentence with the notice period attached. No regulation enumerating them further was captured.

Notice stated in the sources

The same sentence carries the period: written notice of not less than thirty days, shortened to what is practicable where the health, safety or welfare of other residents would be endangered by the thirty-day requirement. A move inside the building has its own line: "Each resident must be given written notice before the resident's room or roommate in the facility is changed." No statement of what the notice must contain appears in the captured South Carolina sources.

Hearing office in these sources

Not stated in the sources reviewed. The Bill of Rights states the grounds and the notice and then provides only for facility-level procedures: "Each facility shall establish grievance procedures to be exercised by or on behalf of the resident to enforce the rights provided by this act." — with "The department shall review and approve these grievance procedures annually. This act is enforced by the department." No state hearing, no office, no address, no form and no deadline for appealing an involuntary transfer or discharge appears in the captured sources. The nursing home licensing regulation R.60-17 was captured and searched and carries no such provision. What the Department on Aging states is that the ombudsman programme "assist the resident or their representative with the appeals and grievance process." — which names an appeals process without stating where it runs.

Ombudsman in these sources

The Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, in the South Carolina Department on Aging, which lists "Improper transfer or discharge of a resident" among the issues it handles. Its published contact: "please call the SCDOA Long Term Care Ombudsman at 1-800-868-9095.", with "Local: (803) 734-9900", "Fax: (803) 734-9886" and the office at "1301 Gervais Street, Suite 350, Columbia, SC 29201".

Sources last checked

2026-08-30

Reproduced from the agencies' own pages and documents quoted below — potentially relevant official sources, not a determination that any notice, ground, or deadline applies to any situation.

Lede

This page assembles what South Carolina's own publishers state about transfer and discharge from a long-term care facility. It is a baseline page, and a short one: the docket rows and the source map are built, and the hearing row comes back as an absence the change log records. The fullest single source is Chapter 81 of Title 44, the Bill of Rights for Residents of Long-Term Care Facilities, whose § 44-81-40(D) states the grounds and the thirty-day notice in a single sentence. South Carolina's vocabulary is transferred or discharged; the chapter's enforcement runs through facility grievance procedures that the department reviews and approves annually.

What the captured sources do not contain is a state forum. Where other states name a hearing office, a deadline and a stay, South Carolina's chapter names the facility's own grievance procedure and the department's approval of it. The Department on Aging refers to "the appeals and grievance process" without stating where it runs, and the licensing regulation carries no appeal provision. The federal floor for Medicare/Medicaid-certified facilities is assembled separately on [the federal page](../federal.html); nothing here fills a gap from federal law or another state. Confirm applicability with the agencies named in the sources: whether any provision applies to a particular facility, resident, or notice is for the hearing office to determine. Deadlines and periods on this page are quoted from the sources, not calculated for any case.