New York City ? A man who worked in the admissions department at a prestigious Manhattan hospital has been charged with stealing and selling information on nearly 50,000 patients.

Dwight McPherson, 38, a former worker at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, was arrested Friday night, shortly after the hospital announced the security breach.

McPherson was arraigned Saturday in federal court in Manhattan. He is charged with computer fraud, identity document fraud, transmission of stolen property and sale of stolen property. U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV ordered McPherson not to leave the New York area before his next scheduled court appearance May 12.

Prosecutors said McPherson exploited his access to the hospital’s computer registration system to acquire lists of patient names, phone numbers and Social Security numbers over a two-year period.

McPherson confessed to a role in the identity-theft scheme when he was interrogated by agents on Friday, an inspector said in the complaint.