Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) communications officer Terry Dyni has left the organization for greener pastures.

On Friday Dyni told this newspaper that it was his last day before heading to Orillia Soldier’s Memorial Hospital on July 14 to take on the communications role there.

“It’s a really good opportunity for me. It’s a bigger hospital, it’s a larger facility (and) they just underwent a major expansion in Orillia,” he said.

Dyni began at MAHC in April of 2006 in the new position of communications officer, at a time when the organization was still in its early stages of developing.

“Neither hospital at the time, Huntsville District Memorial Hospital or South Muskoka Memorial Hospital, had this (type of) position,” explained Dyni.  “The board at the time felt that communications is obviously an ingredient to the overall success . . . (and) it was decided, as part of the process (of amalgamating into MAHC), that it was one position that they would add.”

Dyni said he had no healthcare experience before coming to MAHC, and that the past two years have been a huge learning experience for him.

“It’s a very exciting industry, it changes a lot, it impacts a lot of people and you really feel that you make a difference in the job that you do,” he said. “Your role is, in some way, to try and keep the wheels of communication turning and making sure that people are getting all the information.”

Barry Lockhart, CEO for MAHC, told this newspaper that the organization will not be hiring a replacement for Dyni right away.

“We’re going to take a look at it over the summer and make a decision in terms of how we’ll fulfill those responsibilities whether we’ll fill that position or whether we’ll do it another way,” he said.

Dyni said that his new role in Orillia, as community relations director, will be similar in scope to what he has done for MAHC.

According to a press release sent out by OSMH last week, Dyni is the last addition to the senior management team.

“There was a bit of an upheaval in the organization about a year ago,” he said, explaining that the entire senior level of management has recently been replaced.

Dyni will step in for outgoing director Sharon Burkhart, who has left OSMH to work at Sick Kids’ Hospital in Toronto.