EAHP represents over 29,000 hospital pharmacists across 36 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 professionals.
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 of Germany 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.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Henrik Kjer, Christina Laustsen, Rasmus Riis, Caroline Rasmussen, Jeanette Bajrami, Christian Rubek, and Steffen Jørgensen
An atypical medication room (AMR) was established at Herlev Gentofte Hospital, Denmark to centralize the storage and handling of medications not part of the standard assortment (i.e. atypical medication). The project aimed to improve the efficiency of medication management, reduce medication waste, and streamline workflows associated with the use of atypical medicines. To enhance the accuracy and efficiency of inventory control, the ScanPill technology was developed as a tool for digital tracking and updating of medication stock.
Atypical medications are often stored across various departments with low turnover, leading to potential waste and time-consuming retrieval processes. Centralizing these medications in an AMR and using ScanPill aimed to reduce waste due to expiry, improve stock management, and simplify medication retrieval for healthcare professionals.
Atypical medications from multiple departments were collected and stored in the AMR. The ScanPill system was developed to facilitate the scanning of QR codes and barcodes on medication packaging, allowing for precise tracking of stock levels and easy updates to the atypical medication list. Staff were trained to use the AMR and ScanPill to ensure smooth transitions in retrieving, returning, and documenting atypical medicines. Regular inventory checks and updates were conducted to maintain an accurate database of available medications.
The AMR, supported by ScanPill, led to improved handling and management of atypical medications. The centralized storage reduced the need for duplicate stock across departments and enabled quicker access to necessary medications, reducing retrieval time and potential waste. The ScanPill technology improved inventory accuracy and streamlined the process of checking medication in and out, ensuring up-to-date records. Staff feedback has been positive, noting enhanced workflow efficiency and reduced medication waste.
Future steps include evaluating the economic impact of the AMR and its effectiveness in reducing medication waste. Efforts will be made to refine the use of ScanPill, enhance staff training, and explore potential applications of the AMR model across other departments. Continuous monitoring will ensure optimal performance and identify further areas for process improvement.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Helge Ovesen
In November 2022 St Olav’s hospital, a large university hospital, introduced electronic prescribing and closed loop medication for more than 700 beds. Oral medications are predominantly available as unit doses, other medications as barcoded packages. After go-live with the bedside scanning, data showed that a large part of the administrations and preparations did not happen with barcode scanning. The hospital needed to understand the reason for this in more detail.
A team of pharmacists, nurses and IT personnel have analysed technical reasons why medications are not scanned at the patient’s bedside during administration or when doing preparation in the wards’ medicine room.
The group collected data on all scans that had failed and analyzed the input to the barcode scanner. In addition, the nursing staff lead was consulted to provide more information of the problems with the physical packages for the medication and how that affected the work process of achieving closed loop medication. Products that did not have a printed barcode at all were not included in the analysis.
Six different areas were identified when trying to describe the problems with closed loop medication and scanning of medicine:
1. Barcode printed on package but missing product code/GTIN in the system/national drug registry.
2. Barcode printed on package but with wrong implementation of ISO/GS1 encoding.
3. Barcode printed on package but hidden for the user on the package label.
4. Barcode only printed on the outer package that was removed when stored in the medicine room.
5. QR codes with links to training materials or other barcodes confused the nurse and the wrong code was scanned.
6. Barcode printed on package but contrast for the barcode scanning was not good enough (ex. dark vials with black barcodes).
The problems have been shared with drug manufacturers and competent authorities to raise awareness of how drug package design and correct/incorrect use of barcode printing affect implementation of closed loop medication.
Work together with national drug registries in Norway and drug manufacturers to create a national best practice for barcode printing on drug packages. The work should be coordinated with work on a European level.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
The purpose of the report was to investigate and share what benefit opportunities exist because of the introduction of the EU FMD barcode.
EFPIA, the industry association, commissioned a report to investigate what benefits had occurred in the hospital setting, following the introduction of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (EU FMD).
www.be4ward.com/benefits-beyond-eu-falsified-medicines-directive/
The author worked directly with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in the UK and AZ Sint-Maarten in Belgium. In addition, he reviewed various relevant case studies and publications.
The report demonstrates benefits exist at all points in the hospital supply chain, where packs are handled, stored and processed. Opportunities also exist to web enable the product to provide digital content and services to healthcare providers and patients.
The introduction of standardised barcodes and product identification enables hospitals to leverage benefits opportunities which were difficult to realise before this level of harmonisation and barcoding prevalence.
• The costs of operating the EU FMD can be minimised, integrating with normal operations and leveraging the use of conveyor systems and robotics are successfully reducing the workload impact by up to an expected 80%.
• Barcodes and product identification brings impressive financial benefits to those hospitals which leverage them. In one hospital they were able to save £4 million through the reduction of over ordering products. In another, the improved accuracy and speed in the recharging of procedures identified £840K in lost revenues in a single year.
Scanning barcodes, is being used to deliver value across all three of the benefit opportunity areas: Improved Patient Safety, Enhanced Clinical Effectiveness and Operational Efficiencies. It is possible to offset the costs of EU FMD implementation and operation through the additional benefits.
Share the report findings to enable hospitals to leverage the opportunities of the EU FMD barcode.
