Grayson County leaders approve agreement with Austin College
County commissioners this week approved a cooperative agreement between the county Health Department and the Physicians Assistant program at Austin College.Grayson County Health Department Executive Director Amanda Ortez said the AC students will basically follow Dr. Minaxi Rathod around the clinic as she treats people in the tuberculosis clinic.Grayson County Commissioner Jeff Whitmire asked why the agreement didn’t allow the AC students to participate in other programs at the HCHD where a PA might be helpful.Ortez said the choice of programs and where the students would work was up to Austin College at this point. She said it might be that at some point in the future there might be other opportunities for the physician's assistance at the health department, but they were going to start with the tuberculosis clinic.“Certainly, this is going to open up an opportunity for us,” Ortez said, not only to have access to AC PA students but maybe the students of other such programs as well in the future.Information released by the college show that the program began its first set of classes this summer with 34 available spots for physicians' assistance students. The news release said that there were 1200 applications for those spots. That first group of students is expected to graduate with their master's degree in May of 2026.
