Each state has its own set of statutes and regulations on licensing doctors, accommodating patients who wish to file complaints, and releasing information about physicians who have been subject to discipline and legal action. On this page, we’re sharing the key findings regarding Iowa, which we will continue to update as the series progresses.
Key fact: The AJC review found that boards rarely have issued public orders against doctors who failed to report that another physician was sexually abusing patients. However, Iowa sanctioned two doctors who the board said failed to notify it about abuse by another doctor whose license was suspended in 1999 after he "was charged with engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct, offering controlled substances to patients in exchange for sex, possessing and using marijuana and the inability to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety," according to a board press release.
“Revocation is the nuclear option…There is this notion of a second chance on some things.”
— Mark Bowden, executive director of the Iowa Board of Medicine
After a plea deal that spared him from prosecution on 94 charges, Gierlus was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for a drugs-for-sex scheme. Prosecutors had asked for a harsher sentence because of what they called a long pattern of predatory behavior.
Gierlus used vibrators and sex tools during appointments and targeted women with troubled pasts, including women who had suffered sexual abuse as children, the judge said. At least three of the dozen identified victims said the doctor first injected them with a "date rape" drug in his office during an exam.
Officials said there may have been many more victims, and they noted that because many of the women were on public assistance, taxpayers financed his acts.
Gierlus surrendered his license in 2013.
The Journal-Constitution has been unable to reach Gierlus for comment.
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