The former medical director of the state-run Glenwood Resource Center has been given a warning after being charged with professional incompetence. (Photo via Google Earth; seal courtesy the State of Iowa)
State licensing officials who accused a former state-employed physician of gross malpractice or negligence have settled the case with a warning and requiring the doctor to surrender his already-expired license.
State records indicate that in 2021, the Iowa Board of Medicine initiated an investigation of Dr. Mohammad E. Rehman, the former medical director of the state-run Glenwood Resource Center for individuals with disabilities. That was three years after the medical staff at Glenwood publicly issued a vote of no confidence in Rehman’s abilities, and one year after Rehman resigned in lieu of being fired.
In 2022, Rehman’s license expired. More than two years later, in June of this year, the Board of Medicine filed formal charges against Rehman accusing him of professional incompetence – an offense that is defined by the board as including “willful or repeated gross malpractice,” willful or gross negligence, a lack of knowledge or ability to discharge one’s professional duties, or a failure to exercise a degree of care ordinarily exercised by physicians.
With a hearing on the matter scheduled for September 2025, the board opted last week to settle the case against Rehman by issuing him a warning and requiring him to turn in his expired medical license. No fines or civil penalties were imposed.
Although the case is now resolved, the board is not publicly disclosing the basis for the charges against Rehman or stating how, where or when the offending conduct took place. The board has also given no indication as to whether any patients were harmed by Rehman’s conduct.
Unlike other states, Iowa’s licensing boards typically don’t disclose the specific allegations that lead to disciplinary charges against licensees. In cases that are settled without a hearing, the boards also don’t disclose the reasoning behind their decisions.
Rehman’s resignation at Glenwood followed staff complaints of poor medical care, reports that the death rate at Glenwood had doubled, and a federal investigation into sexual arousal studies the home was planning to conduct on residents.
Rehman and Glenwood’s former superintendent were also among the defendants named in a civil lawsuit filed by six former Glenwood employees, including two physicians and a nurse practitioner.
The lawsuit alleged Rehman had criticized doctors for providing residents with “too much” diagnostic care and treatment, and for sending too many patients to area hospitals for treatment rather than providing treatment using Glenwood staff.
The plaintiffs also alleged Rehman directed others to falsify or erase entries in medical records to hide damaging information that Rehman did not want to appear in the regularly audited patient records.
A Polk County judge dismissed the case earlier this year after ruling the plaintiffs had failed to show a clearly defined and well-recognized public policy that protected their activities at Glenwood, and that they had failed to show they acted as whistleblowers by reporting their concerns to law enforcement or other public officials. The plaintiffs have appealed that ruling.