Lake Marion Nursing: Abuse Response Failure - SC
The pharmacist told a different story.
During an interview on September 5, the consultant pharmacist confirmed she had made copies of tracker sheets for all residents on narcotics and had reviewed every scheduled and as-needed medication, checking who dispensed each dose to see whether any nurse was administering more than she should. What she could not produce was any documentation of which residents she had actually reviewed or what she had found.
She had done the work, she said. She just hadn't written it down.
The Chief Clinical Officer told inspectors that the folder handed to the surveyor represented everything the facility had investigated. That folder contained the initial notification to the state agency, a five-day follow-up investigation, three witness statements, narcotic accountability sheets for three residents, and a copy of a medication pill pack for one of them.
There was no record of the pharmacist's audit anywhere in it.
The gap matters because the audit was the facility's own answer to the question of whether the incident had spread further than anyone knew. The administrator pointed to it as evidence the problem had been contained. The pharmacist pointed to her memory. Neither produced documentation that would let anyone, including inspectors, verify what the review had actually found or whether every resident on narcotics had genuinely been cleared.
Inspectors cited the deficiency at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting a small number of residents. The facility is located in Summerton, a rural community in Clarendon County.
What the audit concluded, if it concluded anything, remains unrecorded.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Lake Marion Nursing Facility from 2025-09-05 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.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: August 9, 2026 · Our methodology
Lake Marion Nursing Facility in Summerton, SC was cited for abuse-related violations during a health inspection on September 5, 2025.
The pharmacist told a different story.
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.