Bureau of Certification
The Division of Certification surveys health facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, including nursing homes and facilities for the mentally retarded. These facilities are surveyed with unannounced site visits. Survey teams include nurses, pharmacists, social workers, dieticians and qualified mental retardation professionals.
Bureau of Disease Control
By law, DHEC is mandated "to investigate the reported causes of communicable or epidemic disease and to enforce or prescribe such preventive measures as may be needed to suppress or prevent the spread of such diseases." The program's major activity involves HIV, other STDs, TB, protection from measles, polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases and outbreaks from other communicable diseases. Because all South Carolinians may be subject to communicable disease, we cannot abdicate our responsibility to monitor and control communicable diseases.
Bureau of Laboratories
Services include patient testing for sexually transmitted diseases and well-child tests, and reference services for sophisticated or uncommon agents for other laboratories in South Carolina.
Department of Disabilities and Special Needs Home Page
This Department serves South Carolinians with special needs or disabilities and includes divisions devoted to persons with autism, head and spinal cord injuries, and mental retardation.
Emergency Medical Services
DHEC-EMS is responsible for developing and enforcing all of the standards and regulations necessary for the improvement of emergency medical services in South Carolina.
South Carolina Services Information System
Information on Aging and Disabilities Services