Man Held in Hoag Hospital Grand Theft : Crime: He is accused of embezzling $150,000 while working as a temporary accountant at the Newport Beach facility.

A man suspected of embezzling about $150,000 from Hoag Hospital while he worked as a temporary accountant there has been arrested and released on bail, police said Friday.

Hal Morse, 45, of Santa Ana was arrested Thursday on suspicion of grand theft after the hospital notified authorities that money was missing, Sgt. Andy Gonis said.

Gonis said Morse was employed by the hospital in its accounts payable division during busy periods when hospital employees were out sick or on vacation.

According to Gonis, Morse is believed to have set up a dummy account using the name of one of the hospital’s largest medical supply vendors and sending checks made out to the vendor to a separate address where he could collect them.

A hospital employee apparently noticed discrepancies and reported them to hospital officials, who conducted an audit and took the findings to Newport Beach police, Gonis said. Police arrested Morse after bringing him in for questioning Thursday.

Morse could not be reached for comment Friday.

Michael Stevens, president of the 423-bed hospital, said he was “surprised and shocked, angry.” Stevens said nothing similar has happened during his 17 years with the hospital.

“We have had (incidents) of theft of materials, but not the embezzlement of money,” he said.

Stevens said the hospital will perform another audit to examine all of its approval and control systems for financial transactions.