The Iowa Board of Medicine has issued an emergency order suspending the license of an eastern Iowa physician due to alleged incompetence and unprofessional conduct.
The board alleges that the immediate suspension of the license of Dr. Gabriel Hernandez Roman of the Iowa City area is necessary to protect the public due to the serious nature of Hernandez Roman’s “admitted unprofessional behavior and violation of patient privacy standards, as well as the competency concerns reported from multiple institutions where (he) worked.”
The board’s order gives no indication where Hernandez Roman has worked, or which employers made the allegations. State employment records indicate that between 2020 and 2023, Hernandez Roman was a resident at University of Iowa Hospitals.
Due to a 2022 Iowa Supreme Court ruling, Iowa’s licensing boards no longer disclose to the public the alleged conduct that gives rise to charges or even emergency orders until the disciplinary cases are completely resolved — a process that can take months or even years.
The Board of Medicine’s emergency order suspending Hernandez Roman’s license includes a detailed “findings of fact” that led to the suspension, but that information has been redacted from public view.
Hernandez Roman referred all questions on the matter to his attorney, Ben Arato, who declined to comment on the case.
Court records show that in 2022, Iowa City police obtained a search warrant for the Snap Chat messages Hernandez Roman allegedly exchanged with a woman. According to the warrant application, the woman alleged the two had met on Tinder and that Hernandez Roman had sexually assaulted her at his apartment in Iowa City. According to the application, police interviewed Hernandez Roman, who indicated he and the woman had conversed on Snap Chat and then met for consensual sex.
There is no public record of any criminal charges being filed in the case. Hernandez Roman said Friday the allegations made against him were false and that after he spoke to the police, no charges were filed. “They didn’t proceed to arrest me or anything,” he said.
