Calhoun Convalescent Center: Expired Medications Found - SC
Inspectors visiting Calhoun Convalescent Center on March 26, 2025 found expired medications and medical supplies on both units they checked, in the medication room, in central supply, and on a treatment cart in the hallway. The facility's own policy states medications must be stored following manufacturer recommendations and that expiration dates on opened packages must be observed. What inspectors found was something different.
The first discovery came at 9:25 in the morning, in the East Wing medication room. A licensed practical nurse standing with the inspector confirmed what was on the shelf: an unopened bottle of Pink Bismuth Regular Strength, eight fluid ounces, expired December 2024. A laboratory vacutainer with a blue top, expired. Two insulin Novolog pens, expired, lot number MZF3X25. Two boxes of Blood Culture Collection Kits, expired.
Fifteen minutes later, inspectors moved to the central supply room. One box of twelve Tegaderm wound dressings, lot number 33C893, expired. A second LPN confirmed it.
At 9:43 AM, the central supply staff member put it plainly. "There should not be any expired items in here," she said. "I should be checking them, and I try to but don't have the time."
Two minutes after that, inspectors found one more expired Blood Culture Kit, this one on the North Unit treatment cart. The LPN who confirmed it said she was going to throw it away.
The Director of Nursing was interviewed at 10:52 AM. "Insulin pens are stored in the fridge until open," she said. "The wound supplies should be current, not expired. There should not be expired meds in the med room or med room refrigerator."
What she described as the standard is not what inspectors found.
The items matter in different ways. Insulin that has passed its expiration date can lose potency, meaning a resident with diabetes could receive a dose that no longer works as intended, with blood sugar consequences that go undetected if no one is looking for that cause. Blood culture collection kits are used to test for infection in the bloodstream, one of the more serious and time-sensitive conditions a nursing home resident can develop. An expired kit may not yield a reliable result. A wound dressing like Tegaderm, which is used to cover and protect open skin injuries, carries sterility guarantees tied to its expiration date.
The central supply worker's explanation, that she tries to check but doesn't have the time, described a system that had been running on good intentions rather than consistent oversight. Expired items had accumulated across two separate units and a supply room. No single nurse or aide could be expected to catch everything. The question the inspection raised was why a checking system hadn't caught any of it.
CMS cited the deficiency at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with some residents affected. That language comes from a federal scale that measures what inspectors could determine had already happened. It does not measure what might have happened quietly before anyone arrived with a clipboard.
The facility's own policy, last revised before the inspection, required exactly the kind of storage practices that the inspection found were not being followed. The Director of Nursing knew what the standard was. The supply worker knew what the standard was. The nurses who confirmed the expired items knew.
The bottle of Pink Bismuth had been expired for at least three months before anyone looked.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Calhoun Convalescent Center from 2025-03-26 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: This article is based on inspection data downloaded directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via Medicare.gov. CMS releases inspection reports in bulk; we publish the findings as documented by state surveyors in the official Form CMS-2567 Statement of Deficiencies.
Plan of correction: The CMS report we receive does not include the facility's plan of correction. Facilities submit plans of correction separately to state survey agencies and those responses may not be reflected in CMS data at the time of publication. The absence of a plan of correction in our data does not mean one was not filed. Readers who want information about corrective steps taken are encouraged to contact the facility directly or their state survey agency.
Corrections may have occurred: Inspection reports reflect conditions observed on the date of the survey. Facilities may have implemented corrections, staffing changes, additional training, or other remediation since the report was issued. We report what CMS provides and encourage readers to seek current information from the facility.
Editorial process: Inspection findings are extracted from CMS source documents and synthesized using AI, reviewed for factual accuracy against the original report by our editorial team.
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Last verified: October 31, 2026 · Our methodology
Calhoun Convalescent Center in Saint Matthews, SC was cited for violations during a health inspection on March 26, 2025.
What inspectors found was something different.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.