EAHP represents over 30,000 hospital pharmacists across 37 member countries. EAHP represents and develops the hospital pharmacy profession within Europe in order to ensure the continuous improvement of care and outcomes for patients in the hospital setting. This is achieved through science, research, education, practice, as well as sharing best-practice and responsibility with other healthcare professional
The EAHP Board, elected for three-year terms, oversees the association’s activities. Comprising directors responsible for core functions, it meets regularly to implement strategic goals. Supported by EAHP staff, the Board controls finances, coordinates congress organization, and ensures compliance with statutes and codes of conduct.
The EAHP staff supports the Board in executing EAHP’s mission. The Staff assists in financial management, events organisations, policy activities and all EAHP projects. The EAHP staff works closely with EAHP’s members and ensures the effective communication all relevant stakeholders.
The first member countries were Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands in 1972. EAHP has now 36 EAHP members and 2 Associate Members. EAHP is open to countries members of the Council of Europe and since 2022 to organisations representing the interests of hospital pharmacists from outside the Council of Europe (Associate Membership)
EAHP’s structure is also composed by different standing committes: EAHP Scientific Committee, EAHP Education Executive Committee and the EAHP CTF Steering Committee.
At EAHP, we are committed to transparency in our governance, ethical standards, and funding practices. This section provides open access to our foundational documents, including the EAHP Statutes, Code of Conduct, and Funding Sources. By sharing these resources, we aim to uphold accountability and foster trust with our members, partners, and the public.
Keep up with all EAHP’s events and webinars. Contact the team at info@eahp.eu should you have any questions about upcoming events or activities.
Here you can find all upcoming events organised by EAHP and by all its members and associate members. Do not hesitate to contact the events team at events@eahp.eu should you have any questions about the organisation of these events.
Hospital pharmacists conduct a critical role in the care of patients in hospitals. Learn more about what they do here and in all the pages under Hospital Pharmacy practice and Policy.
Self-Assessment
SILCC
Closed SIGs
EAHP brings together experts from many areas of hospital pharmacy practice providing and highlighting good local sustainable practices as that can be up-scaled and shared with other countries. The EAHP Working Group on Sustainability has the aim of reducing the environmental burden of the hospital pharmacy services.
The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), and its 36 member country platforms are creating a Common Training Framework for the hospital pharmacy education in Europe. The goal of this project is to allow the free movement of hospital pharmacists within the European Union.
The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) and the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP) have collaboratively developed the Oath to Society. The Oath to Society is all encompassing and acts as a contract for excellence in providing compassionate patient care, working as part of the healthcare team and advancing the pharmacy profession, and showcasing how clinical and hospital pharmacists work every day
A day created to highlight the importance and to celebrate the work done by hospital pharmacies. This day celebrates all hospital pharmacy teams.
Catch up with EAHP’s press releases
Find all EAHP relevant publication like the EAHP Surveys, annual reports and the history books.
The European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy (EJHP) is the only official journal of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) and is committed to advancing the science, practice and profession of hospital pharmacy. As the premier communication platform for hospital pharmacists worldwide, EJHP is a major source for continuing education as well as updates on advances in the practice and standard of pharmaceutical care for patients.
When EAHP and Hospital pharmacists appear in the news.
EAHP publishes a monthly EU monitor with updates about the latest EAHP initiatives and information relevant for the hospital pharmacy profession.
Sponsor Channel
The Sponsor Channel is designed to maximise visibility and engagement, allowing sponsors to connect with the hospital pharmacy community and partners in a dynamic and interactive environment. From product demonstrations to networking sessions, the Sponsor Channel offers a range of opportunities for sponsors to showcase their offerings and generate leads in the new EAHP Website.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Sophia Hannou, Cristina Nicorici, Patricia Spitz, Samuel Cotte, Wanda Bosshard, Nancy Perrottet, Pierre Voirol, Farshid Sadeghipour
Medication use process is at high risk especially for opioids. In our geriatric rehabilitation unit, self-reporting incidents are submitted regularly to our quality system. Among the 44 drugs incidents reported in 2021, 11 included opioids. Prevention with training is a way to reduce these errors. However, theoretical teaching covering the “5 rights” rule remains insufficient. Therefore, an interactive learning with a room of horrors focused on opioids was selected by our unit to prevent these errors. The objective was to cartography and identify the most risky steps and to introduce specific actions to reduce these risks.
A room of horrors with a specific focus on opioids has been developed and implemented to reduce errors in medication circuit.
An interprofessional group created the room of horrors based on real incidents. Fictional patient, clinical situation and opioid prescription were created in the medical software. Several drugs and medical devices were available. A model wore an identification bracelet. Ten errors, covering the five rights, were hidden in the room. A pair of healthcare givers had 20 minutes to realise the simulation (5 for the briefing, 10 for the exercise and 5 for debriefing).
During the World Patient Safety Day 2022, 38 healthcare professionals (19 nurses, 10 assistant nurses, 9 geriatricians) participated to this training. Errors were detected in variable proportions. For example, 58% of the participants uncover the patient identification error, 53% the pharmaceutical form, 53% the expired date, 47% the allergy contraindication and 47 % used the oral syringe.
Results and theoretical notions will be presented to all professionals of the unit. This room of horrors is transposable and can be used in other units of the hospital. A video of this simulation was created as an e-learning. It will be implemented as a continuous training or for new collaborators in our unit and can be shared to other units of the institution. Incidents will be continuously monitored and the training will be adjusted in the future. Based on the success of the room of horrors, this interactive learning will be used in other areas with other clinical or technical dimension.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
This solution, an integrated module of our electronic health record (EHR) (Millennium Oracle Cerner), allows the computerised validation of the administration of medication in real-time at the patient’s bed by scanning a bar code identifying the medication or the infusion.
The implementation of a solution allowing the secure administration of medication (oral or injectable) at the patient’s bed is one of the latest processes we have put in place to improve the security of the medication circuit and the quality of patient care within our establishment.
Our pharmacy has a robot for automated dispensing of unit forms of medication by over-packaging (PillPick Swisslog). A unique code of each oral medication is affixed to each sachet and this code, once scanned, will be used to verify the concordance between the physical medication in the hands of the nurse dispensed by the pharmacy and the medication prescribed in the EHR.
For infusions, a tool of our EHR makes it possible to generate a barcode label taking again information of the prescription as well as patient identity and that one is affixed on the infusion after reconstitution/dilution the barcode being scanned at the time of the installation.
In collaboration with the care services we have set up a Bluetooth barcode reader connected to the nursing cart for the scanning of the therapeutics and the patient. The process allows after scanning and verification of the patient’s identity, to scan all the drugs to be administered orally or by injection directly at the time of administration and their validation in the patient’s file at once.
The approach around this work and its deployment has allowed team work between the pharmacy, the care services and the IT services in charge of the EHR to achieve the rapid and sustainable implementation of this solution, fast learning and saving nursing time. It allows us to secure our circuit from the production of therapeutics by our robot to the administration to the patient and also to respect the 5B rule of the drug circuit.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Cathrine Noergaard Peulicke, Michelle Lyndgaard Nielsen
The process of building a new hospital has led to development and rethinking the drug concept. At the hospital we always have “the patient first” in mind. This is our codex. That is why we are changing the concept for delivery, dispensing and administration of medication. We wanted to ensure that the concept functioned from a patient safety perspective, patient flow perspective, patient involvement perspective, professional development perspective and perspective of a healthy operation. The vision is the right medication, from the right hand at the right time.
At the new hospital, the medication logistics will undergo major changes. There will only be medication for acute use at the wards, the rest will be delivered ready-to-use from the main pharmacy or from a decentralised unit, called Pharmaservice. Here IV-solutions with short expiration are being reconstituted and oral solutions are dosed according to the prescription. Tablets and capsules are dispensed in the multi-dose robot at the main pharmacy. The multi-dose medication is equipped with a bar code which is scanned at administration and full electronic documentation is obtained. The majority of the medication will be dispensed daily for 24 hours and delivered in boxes for each patient to the wards.
In order to ease the transformation, we have built a mock up of a Pharmaservice unit where this set-up is enrolled to all inpatient wards in the hospital on the geriatric ward, children’s ward and gynaecology and obstetrics ward.
A steering group was founded and membered by managers from the involved wards including the hospital Pharmacy. Frequent meetings with the involved wards has been necessary to ensure competences and communication. Post-implementation we are closely evaluating the initiative.
Patient safety is in focus and with the multi-dose dispensing robot we have achieved full electronic documentation from the prescription, dispensing and administration process, and thereby have reached closed loop medication.
Having implemented the initiative on three wards, we are now working on enrolling this to the entire new hospital when it is ready in 2024. At the new hospital, we will have five Pharmaservice units servicing all inpatient wards.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Trine Birkholm, Trine Rune Høgh Andersen
The Danish Ministry of Health has declared which healthcare professionals should handle medication such as dispensing and administration to patients in hospitals. Traditionally, primarily nurses and physicians handle administration of medicines in the Danish hospitals. In recent years a massive shortage of nurses in Danish healthcare has called for other professions to participate in administration of medicines. As Denmark has employed less than one clinical pharmacist per 100 beds in hospitals, pharmacists are not able to contribute to the task. However, clinical pharmacists can have an important role in educating other healthcare professionals e.g. HCAs in handling medicines.
Because of massive lack of nurses and thereby healthcare professionals to administer medicine in psychiatric wards in Region Zealand, Denmark, the pharmacists developed and implemented a training course for social and healthcare assistants (HCAs) to participate in the task.
As hospital pharmacists should ensure that the information needed for safe medicines use, including both preparation and administration, is accessible at the point of care (EAHP statement 5.9), aiding in the development of a training course for HCAs was ideal for the clinical pharmacists. The training course has a duration of 3 days followed by a mentored trainee period. The course includes psychopharmacology lessons to teach HCAs to observe and react to overdoses, lack of effect or side effects as declared in medicine handling guidelines.
Approximately 150 HCAs have attended the course since 2020. Eight out of ten state that the course has enabled them to take on the new work tasks. Nine out of ten believe that they can use the newly acquired knowledge and practical skills for their new work tasks. Today, the administration of medicines in the psychiatry ward is also managed by HCAs, thus relieving the nurses’ time needed for more specialised tasks.
There is also a shortage of nurses in the somatic hospitals. To ensure patient safety and enough staff to dispense and administer medicines, several hospital wards have requested similar training for HCAs. It is believed that similar training courses with modifications can target somatic wards as well.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Betânia Abreu Faria, Sara Barroso, Antonieta Silva, Olga Martins
Portuguese legislation “The Basic Health Law (No. 95/2019) and the National Plan for Patient Safety 2021-2026 (NPPS 2021-2026) and the goals of the World Health Organization (WHO) are fundamental pillars of healthcare safety. The NPPS has promoted patient safety in the Portuguese National Health Service, focusing on specific issues such as safety culture, unambiguous identification of patients, safe surgery, pressure ulcer prevention, prevention of falls, infections associated with healthcare and incident reporting and drug safety. Thus, it is essential to ensure the training of health professionals (HP) in the field of patient safety and the safe and rational use of medicines. The objectives of the training actions focused on the safe use of medication, promoting patient safety and sharing experiences between the various HP, in order to optimise the circuits and procedures already implemented.
Multidisciplinary training actions were carried out within the scope of safe medicine practices.
A team of four pharmacists and one nurse carried out training actions in the context of Safe Medicines Practices. The following topics were addressed: medicine circuit; good practices in drug preparation; identification of medicines: Look-Alike Sound-Alike (LASA) and High-Alert Drugs; physicochemical incompatibilities; factors that modify stability after reconstitution/dilution; fractionation and crushing of Solid Oral Pharmaceutical Forms (SOPF); drug information sources; reporting adverse drug reactions and other incidents; good practices in medication administration.
Training actions were carried out with a total of 29 hours of training and 357 participants. Suggestions for improvement were presented: optimisation of drug signage, compliance with established circuits, logistical aspects, on time drug information, improvement of communication channels, increase in the frequency of training actions. The trainees expressed receptiveness and interest in this initiative, which provided content that was little discussed and very relevant to their daily practice.
The correct preparation and administration of medicines is essential to safeguard their effectiveness and patient safety, which is the ultimate goal of every health professional’s daily activity. The Pharmacist, as part of the multidisciplinary team, must promote strategies that safeguard Safe Practices throughout the drug circuit. Hence it is important to ensure the continuity of these trainings.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Catarina Oliveira, Ana Mirco, Fátima Falcão
-lactams have proven to be effective and safe antibiotics over their history, and as a consequence, these drugs are typically among the most frequently prescribed in hospital settings. Optimization of treatment with β-lactams can be achieved by their administration by continuous infusion. Furthermore, this approach leads to a reduction of the nursing time devoted to preparation and administration. However, information regarding continuous infusion of β-lactams is not readily available for most antibiotics, leading to doubts about dosing, renal adjustments and administration, particularly uncertainties related to dilution of the antibiotics as most patients benefit from fluid restriction. Also, it was indispensable to understand which antibiotics had stability to be administered through continuous infusion.
A protocol for continuous infusion of β-lactams was established in a coronary care unit (CCU), replacing the previous method of intermittent dosing in most patients.
Firstly, we evaluated which antibiotics benefited from this approach and had, simultaneously, stability. The antibiotics selected were Cefotaxime, Ceftazidime, Cefepime, Cefuroxime, Piperacillin/tazobactam, Penicillin G, Ampicillin and Flucloxacillin. In order to stablish a protocol for continuous infusion of these antibiotics, an extensive literature review was performed. Information about loading and maintenance dose, reconstitution, dilution (solvent and maximum concentration), infusion rate, renal adjustments, stability and storage was collected and summarized in a table.
A ready-to-use version of the β-lactams continuous infusion protocol was developed. In addition, dosing adjustments in patients on continuous renal replacement therapy, commonly made in patients in the CCU, were included too. This protocol was made available to all health professionals through the hospital’s intranet as well as posted in the CCU in order to be easily accessible by doctors and nurses. Thus, continuous infusion is now the standard for most patients requiring therapy with β-lactams in the CCU.
The implementation of this protocol has an education purpose, allowing the best use of documented practices in prescribing, medication review and administration continuous infusion of β-lactams. This protocol can similarly be easily implemented in other medical units. In the near future, we plan to monitor the compliance to the protocol and consider further improvements if necessary.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Martina Jeske, Jasmin Stoll, Vanessa Funder, Sabine Bischinger
Due to the limited number of ports, it is necessary to administer several drug solutions via the same access. Incompatibility reactions can occur and may lead to a reduction or loss of drug efficacy and severe damage to the patient’s health. The objective was to create standardized administration protocols for central venous catheters and verify parenterally administered drugs’ incompatibility reactions. A further purpose was to build multidisciplinary cooperation to improve the drug administration processes.
To optimize the drug therapy at four intensive care units (ICUs) of the University Hospital, the pharmacy department, physicians, and care management, jointly implemented a quality assurance project. In multidisciplinary teams, we had to overcome various challenges in different wards to develop standards regarding administering drugs via multi-lumen catheters. We analyzed all frequently used drugs (n=72) for their compatibility and summarized findings in a crosstable.
The current situation was recorded using a questionnaire and collecting individual cases of protocols for central vein catheters. About 2000 drug-drug-combinations were analyzed using three databases, KiK 5.1, Micromedex, Stabilis 4.0, corresponding specialist information, and manufacturer data. Nevertheless, the compatibility check based on the databases is subject to some restrictions. In several cases, the databases give different or contradictory results, and compatibility data are rarely available for some combinations. The project revealed that although infusion therapy is standardized in intensive care units, there are fewer standards regarding administering drugs via multi-lumen catheters. There are significant differences between theory and practice in terms of handling infusion therapy.
Different hazardous practices got identified and eradicated. The incompatibility table allows a quick assessment. The advantages/disadvantages of varying software systems were broadly discussed. KiK 5.1 was implemented in the ICUs, Micromedex in the pharmacy department. The team agreed that existing uncertainties must be decided jointly. Different practices in different wards may pose a threat to patient safety. The results were presented in a clinic-wide interdisciplinary training.
The awareness towards the need for cooperation and hospital pharmacists’ competence concerning incompatibility reactions strongly increased, leading to more standardization in the infusion therapy and avoiding incompatible drug combinations. The aim is to initiate a continuous improvement process.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Grainne D’Ancona, Niall Stewart-Kelcher, Schaya Bains, Andrew Hearn, Joanne Kavangh, Cris Roxas, Linda Green, Linda Thomson, Marianna Fernandes, Brian Kent, Alexandra NanzerKelly, David Jackson, Jaideep Dhariwal
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the rapid transition of benralizumab dependent SEA patients onto home administration to facilitate on-going therapy in a cohort of patients who were “shielding” under UK government guidance.
246 severe eosinophilic asthmatic (SEA) patients treated with benralizumab; a biologic agent targeting the human interleukin-5 receptor (IL-5Rα), at a specialist NHS asthma clinic, were transferred to self-administration at home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside this, patients continued to need to be newly initiated on benralizumab therapy in spite of the pandemic and innovative pathways were created to ensure rapid initiation of therapy and home administration.
A varied multi-disciplinary team including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, specialist nurses, doctors, physios and phycologist conducted a variety of in-person and virtual (telephone and video) consultations to consent and train patients on self-administration in their own homes in a rapid transfer to home administration.
We have investigated this patient cohort for any unwarranted effects by comparing the last Asthma Control Questionnaire-6 (ACQ6) measured in clinic with that collected by telephone consultation 8-12 weeks after transition to home administration. 246 benralizumab patients were included in the analysis, of whom 49 (20%) were new. There was no significant difference in pre-biologic ACQ6, pre-homecare (baseline) ACQ6 or post-homecare ACQ6 between the new and established patient groups. Both cohorts exhibited a similar magnitude of improvement in their ACQ6 following the transition to home administration (-0.73 in the established group vs -0.73 in the new group, both P<0.0001). We have demonstrated that early transition to home administration in patients treated with benralizumab is not associated with worse clinical outcomes as assessed by ACQ6.
Evaluation of patient experience on the switch to self-administration is currently being carried out via patient surveys with this data due to be completed in early 2021. Further research is required to understand the potential influence of lockdown and/or telephone vs face-to-face ACQ reporting.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Grainne D’Ancona, Niall Stewart-Kelcher, Schaya Bains, Andrew Hearn, Joanne Kavanagh, Cris Roxas, Linda Green, Louise Thomason, Marianna Fernandes, Brian Kent, Alexandra NanzerKelly, David Jackson, Jaideep Dhariwal
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the rapid transition of the remaining 41 mepolizumab dependent SEA patients onto home administration to facilitate on-going therapy in a cohort of patients who were “shielding” under UK government guidance.
87 severe eosinophilic asthmatic (SEA) patients treated with mepolizumab; a biologic agent targeting interleukin-5 (IL-5), at a specialist NHS asthma clinic, were transferred to self-administration at home compared to usual practice of administration in a hospital setting. 40 patient were transferred in late 2019 as a planned ‘pilot’ transition and 47 patients were transferred unplanned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated whether there was a change in asthma control following the transition to home administration and whether a differential response to treatment exists following transition to homecare before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A varied multi-disciplinary team including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, specialist nurses, doctors, physios and phycologist conducted a variety of in-person and virtual (telephone and video) consultations to consent and train patients on self-administration in their own homes in a rapid transfer to home administration
Patients receiving mepolizumab at home were stratified according to those who had a planned transition prior to 1st Feb 2020 versus those who had an unplanned transition after this date necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The last Asthma Control Questionnaire-6 (ACQ6) measured in clinic (“baseline”) was compared with that collected by telephone consultation 6-8 weeks after transition. Immediately prior to transition to homecare (baseline), the planned group had a lower mean ACQ6 than those in the unplanned group (1.19 vs 1.90, P=0.004). The ACQ6 on home administration decreased significantly in both groups (-0.47 in the planned group vs -0.56 in the unplanned group, both P<0.001). The ACQ6 for the planned cohort during homecare was significantly lower than that for the unplanned group (0.72 vs 1.34, P=0.012).
Evaluation of patient experience on the switch to home administration is currently being carried out via patient surveys with this to be completed in early 2021. Further research is required to understand the potential influence of lockdown and/or telephone vs face-to-face ACQ reporting.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
SALIM HADAD
It remains that new solutions to increasing the safety of handling Solid Dosage Form hazardous drugs have to be developed. Conceptually, through operating in a closed system, CSTDs should significantly reduce the risks to pharmacists and nurses There are two main drawbacks of the known solutions:
1. The crushing and dilution of the solid dosage form medicine is done with an open vessel to the environment, such as a porcelain crater, which may cause the work environment to be contaminated with carcinogenic or teratogenic substances, that could expose and endanger the medical staff to hazardous substances in the course of their duties as providers of medical care.
2. The tools available today are reusable, requiring a thorough cleaning process between different materials (drugs), which can lead to cross-contamination between different doses of drugs, which are crushed one after the other with the same instrument.
CSTD – for oral dosage form new device of its kind, combines the act of crushing the various drugs, dissolve in liquid and give to a patient who cannot swallow for various reasons, that mechanically prohibits the transfer of environmental contaminants into the system and the escape of hazardous drug or vapor concentrations outside the system.
We designed the device with 3D software (solid wark). It consists of a number of functional parts. The main ones are: a 20 ml barrel, a top part of which is a piston with a bottom basket loaded with the solid medicine; this part is sealed as a barrel from above. With the help of mechanical rotation, the drug breaks down into small particles that fall into the inner space of the barrel. Adding the liquid through a fluid port disposed on the bottom barrel which it is completely sealed. The removal of the liquid drug through a unique adapter which at its end is adapted to the gastric tube or oral administration to the patient,
1. The complete process of crushing and liquefying of the solid drugs is carried out under sealed conditions to the immediate environment and without fear of exposure to residues of toxic substances to the medical caregiver. 2. A one-time use system saves complex cleaning process. 3. There is no risk of cross-contamination between different drugs. 4. Saving personal protective equipment such as gloves, masks, lab coats clean rooms, etc. which is necessary for protection and for the safety of the caregiver team.
Applied research will be carried out by pharmacists and nurses to test the efficiency of the new device (as a basic prototype). These experiments will take various non-cytotoxic pills, will be dummy operations, in which the crushing and liquefying will be performed, and the solution or suspension will be transferred through the gastric tube, according to an approved research protocol.
