SCHENECTADY — Robert Bylancik thought he had put his career as a health care executive in the city behind him.

After working at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital for 38 years and retiring as its president and chief executive officer in 2007, the 64-year-old Bylancik in June moved from the Schenectady to Clifton Park to be closer to his daughter and grandchildren.

Within seven weeks, he was back in Schenectady heading a health clinic for poor and uninsured patients.

Hometown Health Centers announced Monday that Robert Bylancik will serve as interim chief executive officer of the federally qualified health center until a permanent replacement can be found for John Silva. Silva last month abruptly announced his resignation after six years of heading the clinic.

The appointment brings Bylancik back into Schenectady’s health care industry less than two years after he arranged a merger between Sunnyview and Northeast Health, the Troy health facilities network that includes Albany Memorial and Samaritan hospitals.

“It was the last thing on my mind,” said Bylancik, who started working at the State Street clinic July 28, less than two weeks after Silva stopped working there.

Despite leaving Schenectady this past spring, Bylancik continued to be active in the community. He sits on the boards of directors for the Schenectady Museum and Northeast Health. At Hometown Health, Bylancik said he wants to ensure the clinic continues providing quality care and “re-energize” its connections with the local medical community.

Bylancik said he also plans to raise community awareness of the clinic, which treats over 22,000 federally registered patients annually. He will give tours of the clinic and speak about it at public events.

In Silva’s wake, Hometown Health Vice President of Clinical Services Angella Timothy has briefly headed the clinic. Bylancik said he has not talked with Silva since taking over at Hometown Health. He expects the CEO search process to last three to six months.

“We’ve just begun the process. I don’t know how much interest we’ll have,” Bylancik said.

Silva took over Hometown Health when it was weeks away from closing in 2002. Although he managed to relocate the clinic from a former school on Craig Street to State Street and double its patient volume, financial problems have continued to dog it. Bylancik described the clinic’s condition now as “stable.”

A surge in care for county residents who have lost employer-provided health benefits and illegal immigrants substantially hurt the clinic’s finances in 2007. The influx of those patients prompted Hometown Health to provide more reduced, charitable and bad-debt care.

In dire straits last autumn, Silva moved to close Hometown Health’s satellite office at the Medical Arts Center near Ellis Hospital. He also stopped providing health care services at the Schenectady County Jail.

Silva often said his center needed more support from the city, county and state. Even Bylancik noted how many people in the community do not fully understand what a federally qualified health center is.

However, Bylancik is not unfamiliar with working at a unique and, consequently, misunderstood health care facility. Prior to the Northeast merger, Sunnyview was upstate’s only freestanding rehabilitation hospital.

Bylancik started working at Sunnyview in 1969 as a staff social worker, and he became its CEO in 2000. Explaining his decision to come out of retirement, Bylancik said: “It was really a decision to help out the community, to grow and promote a very important health care organization here.”