Nursing homes around Charleston

What does a nursing home provide?

Around-the-clock licensed nursing care, help with all daily activities, therapy and medical oversight, both for short rehab stays after a hospital admission and for long-term residents who need daily skilled care.

DPH lists 19 licensed nursing homes in the three counties with 2,115 licensed beds, and CMS rates 18 of them, 9 at four or five stars overall (Care Compare data as of October 1, 2026).

How are Charleston-area nursing homes rated?

By CMS on Care Compare, with overall, health inspection, staffing and quality measure ratings from one to five stars, plus inspection dates, deficiency counts, staffing hours, turnover and fines.

DPH conducts the inspections as South Carolina's state survey agency and can also issue state enforcement orders, which appear in its monthly reports. Each of our nursing home pages shows both.

What does a nursing home cost, and who pays?

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 up to 100 days of skilled care after a qualifying hospital stay, and Medicaid pays for long-term care for eligible residents.

Most long-term residents start by paying privately and move to Medicaid when savings are spent. Confirm that a home accepts Healthy Connections Medicaid for long stays before admission.

How do I choose a nursing home around Charleston?

Use CMS data to build a short list, looking at health inspections, staffing hours and turnover as well as the overall stars, then visit each home at a mealtime and in the evening and ask how families are kept informed.

Our nursing home pages compare staffing hours and turnover with the tri-county middle value and list DPH enforcement orders since January 2025. Ask how Medicaid beds are assigned and where residents went during the last hurricane evacuation.

How does a nursing home's rehab unit differ from its long-term floors?

Rehab serves short-stay patients recovering after a hospital admission with daily therapy and a goal of returning 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 situation.

How is nursing homes spread across the Lowcountry?

DPH's licensing data puts nursing homes in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties as shown below.