The Surgery Center at Brinton Lake in suburban Philadelphia had a profitable 2008, its first year in the black since it opened in December 2005. Just one problem: The profits are gone. Every last cent. And it's not the economy's doing. It's an alleged embezzler's: Joseph Grostas, 35, the ASC's business manager of 18 months, whom police arrested last month and charged with 270 counts of theft and related offenses for stealing at least $180,000 from the center.

"I'm angry, I'm frustrated, I'm embarrassed. It's a very sobering moment for me professionally," says administrator Gina Espenschied, RN, BSN, CNOR. "It feels like he raped our organization."

She fears Mr. Grostas, free on $10,000 bail, is responsible for $396,000 in losses, more than twice what police so far have uncovered. "He ate up every bit of profit that we had," says Ms. Espenschied. "He would have knocked us out of business if his stealing went on for much longer."

He used the stolen money for shopping excursions and to pay his mortgage, car insurance and cell phone bills, meals at restaurants and a personal ad on Yahoo, according to police.

"He has internally combusted our partnership," says Ms. Espenschied.

She uncovered Mr. Grostas's alleged improprieties during a routine check of the facility's bank account last month. She noticed an unusually high balance on Mr. Grostas's company credit card and confronted him in his office.

"At first he looked at his wallet and said he must have pulled out the wrong [credit] card," she says. "But when I flipped the page and read off his other activities" — charging rental cars for a vacation, college tuition for his wife, tutoring for his son, a motorcycle and used cars — "his face went pale and he kept repeating ???I don't know, I don't know.'"

Mr. Grostas, who had complete autonomy and financial control of the center, used every trick in the embezzler's handbook, says Ms. Espenschied. He slowly bled the center "a few hundred to few thousand" at a time by writing himself out a withdrawal ticket after he'd make a deposit. He electronically transferred $71,000 from the facility's bank account to his own. And he destroyed $160,000 in insurance checks stamped for deposit after he took the cash that was part of the deposit.

Mr. Grostas robbed the center of more than money. He also stole a piece of its soul. Many of the 22 physician-owners are having sleepless nights and the staff of about 50 are worried for their jobs, says Ms. Espenschied. Keep an eye on your finances and keep the surgeons and staff of the Surgery Center at Brinton Lake in your thoughts as the emotional healing and financial recovery begins.