POST FALLS - Drawing cheers, Dexter Olmstead, slowly made his way to the podium with the help of a walker and his parents on Wednesday.

Dexter, a senior at Timberlake High, was nearly killed in an auto accident last February near Athol. He has made remarkable strides in recovery and has returned to school.

At a groundbreakingceremony for the 30-bed, 33,000-square foot Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest in Post Falls, Dexter and parents Kyle and Rena spoke and showed how critical the facility, a joint venture between Ernest Health and Kootenai Health, will be for Kootenai County.

"It would have been so much better to stay local," Rena said of Dexter's rehabilitation.

After Dexter spent two weeks in intensive care at Kootenai Health, he spent six weeks at Ernest's Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital in Post Falls.

That was followed by about four months of transporting Dexter to St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane.

"He was exhausted by the time he'd get to therapy," Kyle said. "This (Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest) would have saved us a lot of money and effort."

The Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest will offer services to those with head and spinal cord injuries and who have suffered from strokes, so patients such as Dexter won't have to leave Kootenai County.

"We think that home cooking is good for you," said Darby Brockette, CEO of Ernest Health, which will be the managing partner.

The new inpatient facility, which will be built next to NIAC along Interstate 90, will create about 120 new jobs. It is slated to open in fall 2013. Construction is expected to begin in the spring.

"We're proud to bring a new level of care to North Idaho," said Kootenai Health's Jeremy Evans.