Kentucky panel suspends license of doctor accused of groping, kissing female staffers
A Kentucky medical panel has suspended the license of a doctor accused of kissing and groping female employees and forcing one to perform oral sex.
The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure released the order against Aman K. Patel on Tuesday.
Patel, an interventional cardiologist, was first licensed in Kentucky in 2022. His principal license is in Texas, but he is licensed in all 50 states and has a telemedicine practice.
The Kentucky board issued an emergency suspension of Patel’s license based on an action against him in Maryland.
According to the Maryland State Board of Physicians, Patel faced accusations of sexual harassment from several women when he practiced on-site at a facility in the state from January through May in 2024.
Patel was in Maryland as a locum tenens physician. Those are doctors who work at health care facilities temporarily to fill gaps or vacant positions, which is common in the medical field.
The Maryland board did not disclose the name of the health facility there.
The Kentucky licensure board cited the findings in Maryland in its suspension order.
One female staffer at the Maryland facility said that the first time she worked with Patel, he asked if he could hug her and then gave her a “really tight squeeze.”
There were several encounters after that in which Patel kissed the woman forcefully, pulling back her head by by her hair and kissing her face and neck, and he also began groping her breasts and buttocks, according to the Maryland order.
The woman said she told Patel to stop, but he refused.
The woman said that on one occasion in April 2024 when she took some paperwork to Patel’s office, he closed the door, began kissing her aggressively and groping her while she tired without success to push him away, then forced her to perform oral sex on him.
The woman went to a nearby bathroom and threw up, according to the order.
Patel allegedly continued to harass the woman after that when they worked together, kissing her so hard at one point that she sustained a cut and bruise on her lip.
When the facility looked into Patel’s alleged behavior, he admitted pulling her hair and said she had performed oral sex on him, but said it was consensual.
A second female employee said that Patel called her into his office and hugged her, then “proceeded to latch onto my face” and try to “make out” with her, then pushed her against a wall while trying to unzip his pants.
The woman said she was able to push Patel away and leave the office.
He later tried to grope her in another office but she was able to get away after someone knocked on the door, the woman said.
Patel acknowledged kissing the woman in his office while his genitals were exposed, and sending her a text message asking her to keep the encounter secret, according to the order in Maryland.
A third female employee said Patel called her to come to his office in early May 2024, pulled her close and started kissing her, then exposed himself and said “come handle some business for him, or take the stress off of him,” the Maryland board said.
The woman was able to leave before anything else happened.
Patel later admitted kissing the woman while he was exposed. He said they “had a kiss and she had a bruise, and it looks like people made a big deal,” according to the findings.
A fourth female employee told investigators that Patel hugged her so hard it left a bruise on her collarbone from the stethoscope she was wearing.
On another occasion, he allegedly grabbed her face and “sucked intently on her lips,” and in another instance squeezed her breast when she brought some tests to his office.
The woman had recently had a medical procedure on her breast and screamed from the pain, then kicked Patel in the hip, according to the board report.
Patel told an investigator he had kissed the woman “maybe a couple of times,” the report said.
Patel did not report his suspension as required, but the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure received notice through a federation of state medical boards and opened a proceeding against him.
Patel responded to the Kentucky board in November, saying he was being evaluated by a physician’s health program and that a psychiatrist had diagnosed him with hypersexual disorder.
Efforts to reach Patel and his Maryland attorney were not successful.
The Kentucky board scheduled a hearing on its complaint against Patel in June.
