Emergency plan rules in South Carolina
One license type researched, regulated by South Carolina Department of Public Health — Healthcare Quality. Every requirement below carries the rule that imposes it.
Assisted living / residential care
Licensed in South Carolina as Community Residential Care Facility (CRCF), by South Carolina Department of Public Health — Healthcare Quality.
S.C. Code Regs. 60-84 (formerly 61-84), Section 1400 (Emergency Procedures/Disaster Preparedness), incl. §1401 (Disaster Preparedness); §504 (staff training); §601 (incidents); §602 (fire and disaster reporting); §704 (resident records)
Fire drill frequency not verified. The CRCF drill rule is 60-84 Section 1504 (Fire Drills); its official text has not been read.
Open https://dph.sc.gov/sites/scdph/files/Library/Regulations/R.60-84.pdf, Section 1504 (Fire Drills), and read the drill frequency, shift coverage, resident participation and drill-record requirements on the official text. The copy read so far is a secondary compilation.
Not verified. Submission of the emergency plan to the Department of Public Health is governed by 60-84 §1401.A, whose official text has not been read.
Authority: South Carolina Department of Public Health
Resident records are maintained for at least six (6) years following the discharge of the resident.
Not verified against official text: a plan for evacuating residents, staff members and visitors, including routes and procedures, is established and posted in conspicuous public areas throughout the facility.
S.C. Code Regs. 60-84 §1503.B — not yet confirmed against primary textNotify the Department by telephone or email of any fire in the facility, and submit a complete written report, including fire department reports if any, within 72 hours. Report any natural disaster or fire that requires displacement of residents or jeopardizes or potentially jeopardizes their safety to the Department immediately by telephone or email, followed by a written report within 72 hours.
S.C. Code Regs. 60-84 §602Staff must be trained in fire response and in emergency procedures/disaster preparedness within 24 hours of their first day on the job.
S.C. Code Regs. 60-84 §504The administrator or a designee must immediately notify local law enforcement and the responsible party by telephone when a cognitively impaired resident leaves the premises for any amount of time without notice.
S.C. Code Regs. 60-84 §601- South Carolina transferred the CRCF rule from Regulation 61-84 to Regulation 60-84 (Department of Public Health) effective May 23, 2025; the section numbers were kept.
- filing — Open https://dph.sc.gov/sites/scdph/files/Library/Regulations/R.60-84.pdf, Section 1401.A (Disaster Preparedness), and read on the official text whether and when the plan is submitted to the Department (initial licensing, bed-capacity increases). The copy read so far is a secondary compilation; the official PDF body past Section 1001 could not be extracted.
- drills — Open https://dph.sc.gov/sites/scdph/files/Library/Regulations/R.60-84.pdf, Section 1504 (Fire Drills), and read the drill frequency, shift coverage, resident participation and drill-record requirements on the official text. The copy read so far is a secondary compilation.
- mandate[0] — Open the official S.C. Code Regs. 60-84 and read §1503.B (Fire Response Training). The research read this posting requirement only on a secondary copy, where it sits in §1503.B rather than §1400.
Reviewed 2026-09-28
What this page is
The requirements South Carolina places on a facility emergency preparedness plan, taken from the state’s own rules rather than a national template. Where we have confirmed something against primary text it is stated plainly; where we have not, it says so and names what to check. Nothing here is inferred from what other states do.
The part that is the same everywhere
The federal layer does not vary by state, and it is narrower than it is usually described. OSHA 29 CFR §1910.38 does not bind every employer on its own — by its applicability paragraph it governs an emergency action plan whenever another OSHA standard requires the employer to have one, and it then settles what that plan must contain. The CMS emergency preparedness rule applies by certified provider type rather than by building. That layer, plus the exit-route, alarm and first-aid rules and the fire code’s plan structure, is covered in the main crash course rather than repeated on all fifty state pages.
Write the plan
The Emergency Plan Builder produces the document itself. It reads the same research as this page, but it does not yet carry every requirement here into the plan it writes, so check the plan against this page before you rely on it for South Carolina. The Compliance Calendar puts the drills and inspections on dates.