Encompass Health plans 50-bed rehab hospital in Post Falls

A new 50-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Post Falls will give Kootenai County another place for patients to land after strokes, spinal cord injuries, amputations and major orthopedic surgery, instead of sending them farther from home for specialized therapy. Encompass Health announced the project May 11 and said the freestanding hospital is expected to open in 2028, bringing private patient rooms, a large therapy gym, an activities-of-daily-living suite, an in-house dialysis suite, a dining room, a pharmacy and an outdoor therapy courtyard.

The hospital will become Encompass Health’s second location in Idaho, joining Boise, and is aimed at patients recovering from neurological conditions, brain injuries and other serious impairments that often require intensive, daily rehabilitation. Kim Steward, president of Encompass Health’s West region, said, “Kootenai County is one of the fastest-growing regions in the state and nation and the community is already underserved in inpatient rehabilitation.” For families in Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and nearby communities, the biggest change will be access: 50 more beds designed specifically for rehab care, closer to where they live.

That need has been building for years. U.S. Census Bureau estimates put Kootenai County’s population at 188,323 on July 1, 2024, and 191,864 on July 1, 2025, up from 171,362 in the 2020 Census. Kootenai Health says the population in Kootenai County and eastern Spokane County is expected to double over the next 20 years, a forecast that underscores the pressure on hospitals, therapists and post-acute care providers across the Inland Northwest.

Kootenai Health already offers rehabilitation services and describes itself as one of the region’s largest rehabilitation providers. The Encompass Health project adds another specialized option in a county where medical development is accelerating, including Kootenai Health and MultiCare Health System’s planned 30-acre Prairie Medical Campus at the southeast corner of Highway 41 and Prairie Avenue. Together, the projects point to a larger shift in Post Falls: more medical space, more specialized care and more local capacity for patients who would otherwise need to leave the area during some of the hardest weeks of their recovery.

The hospital is not opening today, but its arrival in 2028 will reshape where patients go after life-altering injuries and surgeries, and how much of that recovery can happen inside Kootenai County instead of outside it.