To meet increasing demand, Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital has converted and relicensed 17 beds from long-term acute care to inpatient medical rehabilitation as part of a joint venture between Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Ernest Health and Coeur d’Alene-based Kootenai Health.

The hospital held a grand opening for the revamped space on Nov. 14 after initially opening the unit Aug. 4, says Sara Ambrose, CEO of Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital.

“The decision was made because there's such a need in the community for additional inpatient rehabilitation beds,” she says. “When patients come here, they're coming with the hope of going home to be as independent as possible.”

Located at 600 N. Cecil Road in Post Falls, the 19-year-old facility already included necessary features for inpatient rehabilitation, so construction wasn’t required for the conversion project, Ambrose says.

“Physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, physiatry — it's a specific kind of care for this kind of unit that we have now,” says Ambrose.

The unit includes a 3,700-square-foot therapy space with a therapeutic courtyard, warm water aquatic therapy pool, and an activities suite that emulates a home environment that allows patients to practice everyday activities, explains Dan Barth, director of business development at both Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital and Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest.

The 43,000-square-foot advanced care hospital is located on the same campus as Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest, which is also owned and operated by Ernest Health.

Patients are referred to inpatient rehabilitation centers after undergoing a surgery or receiving care for an injury or medical issue from a short-term acute care hospital such as Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center or MultiCare Deaconess Hospital. The average length of stay for a patient undergoing inpatient medical rehabilitation is 14 days, Barth says.

Before the conversion, the advanced care hospital operated 25 long-term acute care beds for patients with complex medical problems who needed extended hospitalization, and 15 medical surgical beds. Of the 40 total beds, 17 long-term acute care beds have been converted for inpatient medical rehabilitation use.

Combined with Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest’s 30 inpatient rehabilitation beds, North Idaho’s available rehab beds have increased by over 50%, Barth says. The rehabilitation hospital and now Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital are the only medical centers with inpatient rehabilitation capacity in North Idaho, he contends.

Before Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest opened just over a decade ago, the only inpatient rehabilitation facility in the North Idaho and Spokane area was St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Medical Center, at 711 S. Cowley Street in Spokane, which operated with 102 beds, Ambrose says.

The conversion project was prompted by a new joint venture agreement between Ernest Health and Kootenai Health, says Tim Swartz, executive director of ancillary and support services at Kootenai Health.

The two health care providers’ first joint venture began after Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest opened, he says.

“When Kootenai health ended up closing our inpatient rehab unit, through that process we joined in a joint venture with Ernest Health for (Rehabilitation) Hospital of the Northwest,” says Swartz. “It's been such a great relationship."

As part of the joint venture, Kootenai Health invested in the rehabilitation hospital and has owned 25% of it since the hospital opened.

In 2024, Ernest Health proposed the new, separate joint venture to convert long-term acute care beds to rehabilitation beds at Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital due to high demand. 

“Our censuses were running almost at max capacity at Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest, and so (Ernest Health) approached us and said, ‘Would you guys be interested in extending the partnership and forming a separate joint venture where we could maximize the beds at (Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital)?’” Swartz says.

Kootenai Health rotates some of its physicians through both the rehabilitation hospital and the advanced care hospital. With the creation of the new joint venture, Kootenai Health now owns 25% of both hospitals via investments, Swartz says.

“With the expansion, we are investing in both the long-term care and the rehab portion of (Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital),” says Swartz.

Swartz declines to disclose how much Kootenai Health has invested into the two hospitals.

“We've kind of just had this ongoing relationship over the years with them,” Swartz says. “It's been such a great relationship where we've been able to serve patients in the post-acute care setting through that rehab hospital.”