Dr. Steve Tu, a Warwick ophthalmologist who charged a patient for a procedure that was never performed, and then refused to refund the money, has been placed on one year’s probation by the state medical board.

The Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline also ordered Tu to make full restitution to the patient’s credit-card company and to pay the board a $1,000 administrative fee.

Additionally, the board has referred the case to the state attorney general to investigate for possible consumer fraud, according to Dr. Robert S. Crausman, the board’s chief administrative officer.

Crausman said that Tu, 37, had a business model in which he would evaluate patients for LASIK surgery but have a different ophthalmologist do the procedure, because Tu was not trained to perform it. Patients were aware of this arrangement and there was nothing improper about it. But in the instance that led to the board’s action, the doctor who was supposed to perform the operation left the practice and the patient didn’t get the services he’d paid for.

LASIK is a procedure in which a doctor uses lasers to improve vision by changing the shape of the cornea. It typically is not covered by health insurance.

In September 2007, a patient used a credit card to pay $2,600 for LASIK surgery at the Clear Choice Laser Eye Center, at 400 Bald Hill Rd., which Tu owns and manages. After the surgery was repeatedly canceled, the patient asked Tu to credit his account for the $2,600. Tu failed to do so, and the patient’s credit was harmed as a result, according to a consent order that Tu signed.

This is Tu’s second probationary period. When Tu first obtained his Rhode Island license in 2005, he was placed immediately on one year’s probation because his licensing application had failed to disclose a disciplinary action in Connecticut in 2004.

In a separate action this week, the board suspended for one month the license of Dr. James A. Gosper, a Johnston internist, because he tested positive for inappropriate use of tranquilizers.

Since 1995, Gosper has been monitored by the Physicians Health Committee of the Rhode Island Medical Society for alcohol and prescription medication abuse. When drugs were found in his urine in two tests in March, Gosper, 62, admitted his relapse, voluntarily closed his practice, and went for inpatient treatment, according to the consent order.

Crausman said this was Gosper’s third relapse into drug abuse, but it had not affected patient care.

Gosper’s 30-day suspension started on Wednesday, and when he returns to practice he will be on probation at least until May 14, 2009. He has agreed to enter into a renewed five-year treatment and monitoring contract with the Physicians Health Committee.

ffreyer@projo.com