Manor House residential facilities in Olanta, Dillon and Edgefield notified the Department of Mental Health they would close, leaving about 145 patients to be relocated within 60 days — 72 of them mental patients.

“The Medicaid reimbursements were not sufficient to run the facilities,” Manor House operations manager Juliana Gregory said. “We don’t have the funds necessary to make structural or capital improvements.”

Manor House has operated in South Carolina since 1984, Gregory said, and will continue to operate three other facilities in Scranton and Georgetown.

An additional 400 beds at four other facilities also might be lost, a Department of Health and Environmental Control spokeswoman said Wednesday, unless their private operator files the proper paperwork with the state.

Willows of York, Palmetto Village of Chester, Fountainside Inn in Greenville, and Foothills Manor in Anderson are under threat of suspension unless the new ownership papers are filed as required, DHEC’s Jan Easterling said.

The homes have until Monday to clear up the problem, but Easterling said DHEC wants to work with the owners to keep the homes open if possible.

The Greenville attorney representing the homes could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Word of the looming closures caught members of the State Mental Health Commission off guard. They come at a time when the commission is juggling a number of issues, including the search for a new state director.

George Gintoli resigned Tuesday to take a private sector mental health job in Florida. He has led the agency through the brunt of a big initial push away from institutional-based care for the mentally ill, toward community-based care.

But as the agency downsized, it did not formulate the correct mix of needed services, affordable facilities, a right-sized staff, and beds dedicated to the patients who need them most.

The commission announced Wednesday that it is studying at least five new plans designed to provide a mix of additional acute- and long-term care beds. The Mental Health Department has opened 100 new acute- and long-term care beds in the past year.

That leaves 150 patients who have been recovering in shorter-term, acute-care beds for 90 or more days, which in most cases means they should be moved to other facilities, mental health officials said.

However, if no beds are available, if the available bed is in a place that’s undesirable to the patient, or if the patient isn’t stable enough to be moved after 90 days, the system backs up, officials said.

On the community care side, there should be plenty of homes across the state in which to place patients who face closure of their current residences, said Jaclynn S. Upfield, hospital services coordinator and community care systems nurse for the Mental Health Department.

“It’s just a constant challenge,” Upfield said.

Reach Burris at (803) 771-8398 or rburris@thestate.com