Boise (670 KBOI News) – Anyone who’s had to spend time in a hospital lately knows the cost is staggering…and the drugs given to patients is a big chunk of that.

Dr. Mark Phillips, with St. Alphonsus, says they are part of a group of other hospitals, health systems and philanthropic groups that will soon start manufacturing their own medications.

“With the critical shortages of medications that have been occurring and continue to occur, essentially a conglomerate of organizations within healthcare are looking to ensure a supply of critical medications for patients, to be used in hospital settings.”

Phillips says availability of drugs is the most important thing, but supply and demand dictates that if the supply increases, and demand stays the same, costs will drop. So yes, helping patients with the high cost of hospital stays is part of the equation.

He stresses they’ll be making generic drugs for use in hospitals, and they should be available next year.