A construction worker in the US state of Indiana has been playing a sweet game of Where’s Wally with the children at a nearby hospital.

Foreman Jason Haney, who is also an artist, built a life-sized cut-out of the red-and-white-striped cartoon character – known in the US as Waldo – and began hiding it around the construction site of the Memorial Children’s Hospital in the city of South Bend.

Children at the existing Memorial Hospital building next door have been working hard each day to find where Waldo is hiding.

Beacon Health System spokeswoman Heidi Prescott told the ABC the idea snowballed from a blow-up snowman.

“Jason got the idea of winter time, it started with an inflatable snowman and he put it on the site to give the kids something to look at,” Ms Prescott said.

“One of his co-workers made the comment ‘wouldn’t it be cool if we did something like Where’s Waldo’?”

Paediatric patient Jafet looks out the window with his mum as they try to spot Waldo. Photo: Beacon Health System

Waldo is 2.5 metres tall and weighs 27 kilograms.

“It didn’t take long to catch on, the kids whether they are in the rooms or in a play area, they look across as soon as they get to the window,” Ms Prescott said.

“They will look all over the building, point and exclaim ‘I found him!'”

She said it gave the children a few minutes to forget why they were in hospital.

“Jason has said over and over again ‘all I did this for was to make the kids smile’.”

Waldo at the construction site. Photo: Beacon Health System

In the coming weeks Mr Haney will be introducing four construction Minions – made famous by the film Despicable Me – to hide.

The concept has so far been a roaring success, with hundreds of people sharing and commenting on photos of Waldo in a public Facebook group set up by Mr Haney.

“My son was in the hospital in May after a bicycle accident. Waldo gave him something to look for outside of his room. Thank you so much for helping our hospital stay go a little better!” Nichole Ivie wrote on the page.

Mr Haney now regularly uses the group to post clues as to where Waldo will be hidden each day.

The construction of the Memorial Children’s Hospital is due for completion in 2017.