Hillside Heights: Dental Care Deficiency Cited - OR
The facility's own protocol was clear enough. Any resident without a bowel movement for more than three days was supposed to receive a nursing assessment, a physical check of the gastrointestinal system, and a review of symptoms. If that assessment pointed to a problem, staff were supposed to offer stool softeners, laxatives, or an enema, depending on what physician orders specified. If none of that produced results, the doctor was to be called.
None of that happened. Not for either resident. Not on a single one of the days in question.
The first resident, identified in inspection records as Resident 5, had been admitted to the facility in December 2025 with a diagnosis that included diabetes. A review of bowel records covering December 31, 2025 through January 28, 2026 showed the resident had no bowel movement on January 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. Five consecutive days. Progress notes and medication administration records for that same stretch showed no bowel assessments were completed and no additional bowel medications were offered.
The Director of Nursing Services acknowledged it directly. On January 29 at 2:13 in the afternoon, she confirmed that no bowel assessment had been completed for Resident 5 during those dates, and that the resident had not received the bowel care interventions the orders called for.
The second resident, Resident 8, had been admitted the same month with heart failure. Bowel records from January 1 through January 29 showed no movement on January 19, 20, 21, or 22. Four days. Again, the progress notes and medication records showed nothing, no assessment, no medications offered, no follow-up.
The Director of Nursing Services confirmed this one too, the following morning, January 30 at 10:57 a.m., the same day inspectors completed their survey.
Constipation in nursing home residents is not a minor inconvenience. In people with heart failure, straining during a bowel movement raises blood pressure and puts stress on the cardiovascular system. In diabetic patients, constipation can be a sign of autonomic nerve damage and can complicate blood sugar management. Severe, untreated constipation can progress to fecal impaction, a condition that can cause bowel obstruction, vomiting, and in vulnerable patients, rupture.
Inspectors rated the harm level as minimal or potential for actual harm. Both residents were among five sampled for medication review. The deficiency affected two of the five.
What makes the findings harder to explain is that the protocol the facility failed to follow was the facility's own, written by the facility, describing exactly what staff were supposed to do and when. The trigger point was three days. Both residents crossed it. One crossed it by two additional days before the inspection caught it.
The undated bowel protocol, as inspectors described it, laid out a step-by-step response that should have activated automatically once the three-day threshold passed. Nurses were supposed to assess. Medications were supposed to be offered. Physicians were supposed to be contacted if nothing worked. The records showed no evidence any of those steps were taken for either resident during the identified periods.
The Director of Nursing Services did not dispute any of it.
Hillside Heights Rehabilitation Center is located at 1201 McLean Boulevard in Eugene. The inspection was conducted January 30, 2026, and the statement of deficiencies was printed July 16, 2026. For information on the facility's plan of correction, CMS directs readers to contact the nursing home or the Oregon state survey agency directly.
What the records don't show is whether either resident experienced discomfort, complications, or harm during those days when no one checked.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Hillside Heights Rehabilitation Center from 2026-01-30 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: August 4, 2026 · Our methodology
HILLSIDE HEIGHTS REHABILITATION CENTER in EUGENE, OR was cited for violations during a health inspection on January 30, 2026.
The facility's own protocol was clear enough.
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.