Licensing Applications

• Abortion Clinic (pdf)
• Adult Day Care Facility (pdf)
• Ambulatory Surgical Facility (pdf)

Updated: June 2, 2026

Updated: March 31, 2026

A hearing aid specialist is an individual licensed by DPH to engage in the practice of measuring human hearing by an audiometer and by other established means for fitting, making selections, adaptations, or sale of hearing aids. It also includes the making of impressions for earmolds. 

Updated: Nov. 10, 2025

Day Care Facilities for Adults offer in a group setting a program of individual and group activities and therapies for adults 18 years of age or older. The program provides community-based day care services for adults in need of a supportive setting, thereby preventing unnecessary institutionalization. The program provides a minimum of four (4) and a maximum of fourteen (14) hours of operation a day.

Updated: March 30, 2026

A Community Residential Care Facility (CRCF) offers room and board and, unlike a boarding house, provides/coordinates a degree of personal care for a period of time in excess of 24 consecutive hours for two or more persons, 18 years old or older, not related to the licensee within the third degree of consanguinity.

A CRCF is designed to accommodate residents’ changing needs and preferences, maximize residents’ dignity, autonomy, privacy, independence, and safety, and encourage family and community involvement.

Updated: July 1, 2026

The Certificate of Need Program administers a regulatory regime known as the State Certification of Need and Health Facility Licensure Act (hereinafter referred to as the "Act") that is set forth in S.C. Code Sections 44-7-110 to 44-7-230. 

The purpose of the Act is to promote cost containment, prevent unnecessary duplication of health care facilities and services, guide the establishment of health facilities and services which will best serve public need and ensure high quality services are provided in health facilities in this State.

Updated: March 30, 2026

A Crisis Stabilization Unit Facility is a facility, other than a healthcare facility, operated by the Department of Mental Health, or operated in partnership with the Department of Mental Health that provides a short-term residential program, offering psychiatric stabilization services and brief, intensive crisis services to individuals eighteen (18) years of age or older, twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week.

This information is for laboratories operating in the state of South Carolina only. If you are a laboratory operating in a state other than South Carolina, please contact the CLIA program in your state.

CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments)

The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) program oversees laboratories that test human specimens for diagnostic purposes. These include hospital laboratories, stand-alone diagnostic labs, and doctors' offices.

Updated: March 19, 2026

• How to Get a License or Relocate (pdf)
• Tattoo Facility and Artist FAQs (pdf)

Tattooing is to indelibly mark or color the skin by subcutaneous introduction of nontoxic dyes or pigments. The practice of tattooing does not include the removal of tattoos, the practice of branding, cutting, scarification, skin braiding, or the mutilation of any part of the body.