La Bella of Mascoutah: Delayed Tests Harmed Resident - IL
The resident, identified in inspection records only as R4, lives at La Bella of Mascoutah. She cannot speak. When her doctor examined her that Monday in early August, she felt a mass in R4's abdomen and noticed signs the woman was either in pain or anxious. The doctor ordered a urinalysis with culture and sensitivity testing, and an abdominal ultrasound, that same day.
Neither test came back when the doctor expected.
The physician, identified as V19 in the inspection report, told inspectors she visits the facility on Mondays and Fridays. She expected both results by Friday, August 8. When she arrived, agency floor nurses told her the tests had been completed, but the results weren't appearing in R4's electronic medical record. The medical records employee was on vacation. V19 said she had trouble getting the results at all.
She eventually reviewed the abdominal ultrasound results the following day and sent R4 to the emergency room to rule out a small bowel obstruction.
It wasn't a bowel obstruction. It was impacted stool near the rectum, so severe it had to be removed by hand at the bedside in the emergency room. R4 then received an enema and passed two large stools immediately after. She also had a urinary tract infection, treated first with an intramuscular antibiotic injection in the emergency room and then with oral antibiotics back at the facility.
The emergency room physician, identified as V2, confirmed there was no bowel obstruction and that the constipation resolved right away once the enema was administered.
Federal inspectors cited the facility for causing actual harm to a resident, the citation level that means something bad already happened, not that it might.
V19 told inspectors plainly that the tests were not done in a timely fashion. She said she expected the facility to follow its own policies and procedures to make sure physician-ordered tests are completed when ordered. But when inspectors asked the facility's administrator, identified as V2, whether any such policy existed, the answer was direct: the facility has no policy or procedure that documents when a lab or ultrasound should be completed.
There was no timeframe. No standard. No written expectation that a test ordered by a physician on a Monday needed to happen before the patient ended up in an emergency room.
What the inspection report captures is a failure that compounded itself at every step. The tests weren't completed promptly. When the doctor came back to check, the results weren't in the system. The person who might have located them was on vacation. Agency nurses told the doctor the tests were done without being able to produce the results. And through all of it, R4 waited, nonverbal, unable to say she was in pain, unable to say something was wrong.
Her doctor told inspectors she believed R4 was in pain or experiencing anxiety when she examined her on August 4. That was the day she ordered the tests. By the time R4 reached the emergency room, she had impacted stool that required manual removal.
The inspection was conducted on August 20, 2025, following a complaint. The citation was tagged F0684, quality of care, at the actual harm level.
La Bella of Mascoutah had no written standard for how quickly a physician's ordered test needed to be completed. R4 was in the emergency room before anyone appears to have treated that as a problem.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for La Bella of Mascoutah from 2025-08-20 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: Official federal inspection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Editorial process: AI-synthesized regulatory data, reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: July 3, 2026 · Our methodology
La Bella of Mascoutah in MASCOUTAH, IL was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 20, 2025.
The resident, identified in inspection records only as R4, lives at La Bella of Mascoutah.
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.