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.
The Early Career Network aims to empower early-career pharmacists by sharing opportunities, insights, and success stories from across 25 member countries.
Together, we’re building a stronger, more connected hospital pharmacy community: one story, one country, one pharmacist at a time.
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
C. Bilbao Gómez-Martino, M.I. Borrego Hernando, A. Santiago Pérez, M.P. Pacheco Ramos, A.E. Arenaza Peña, L. Zamora Barrios, E. Rodríguez del Río, J.C. Tallón Martínez, Á. Nieto Sánchez, M.L. Arias Fernández
MR has been proven to reduce medication errors at admission. If there are no electronic records of PCM, the information obtained by MR usually gets lost and could lead to repetition of errors.
We provided electronic updated reports of patients’ current medications (PCM) after performing medication reconciliation (MR) at admission, although the electronic medical record (EMR) is not yet developed in our hospital.
The procedure, designed in the framework of a pilot MR programme, was gradually implemented in three hospitalisation units: internal medicine, geriatrics and oncology.
In order to make the medication reconciliation reports (MRR) reliable, the pharmacist consulted primary care prescriptions and at least two other independent sources of information, such as: emergency department’s admission report, previous clinical reports, self-reported medication list or the medication itself, if possible. The information was confirmed by a standardised clinical interview. Medication discrepancies were clarified by specific closed ended questions. The rest of treatment was investigated by open ended questions.
MRR included current chronic medication, relevant medications administered on demand, herbal medicines used for therapeutic purposes and other relevant data (inappropriate medications, interactions, dysphagia, adherence). Sources of information were also detailed.
MRR were integrated within the electronic hospitalisation reports, which were easily accessible via the hospital intranet.
At discharge, printed copies of reports were handled to patients.
99 MRR were recorded. 751 PCM were registered and 183 MR errors (MRE) were detected.
We contribute to the ‘best possible medication history’ of patients. This initiative might have improved patient safety by reducing discharge and readmission MRE, although it has not yet been measured.
We enhanced the pharmacist’s role in the multidisciplinary team.
This model of electronic MRR could become a useful reference for healthcare professionals, until the EMR is implemented. The next aim is to register MRR and all pharmaceutical care information in the EMR to improve our patients’ healthcare.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
H. Thoong
PETC admits approximately 15 000 patients per year and is a high user of high cost drugs. Traditionally, a pharmacist provided a clinical and supply service with no technical support. Frequently, prescriptions were written late, dispensed items were lost and patients waited unnecessarily to receive treatment. Furthermore, patient non-attendance and medication re-supply due to misplacement of original dispensed items led to stockpiling of medicines.
A pharmacy technician (PT) coordinated medication service was introduced onto the Paediatric Elective Treatment Centre (PETC) to decrease patient waiting time (PWT) and drug wastage.
Prior to admission, patients requiring medication were identified by a PT. If medication had been prescribed, this was transcribed onto a pharmacy order form. The prescription chart and order form were clinically checked by a pharmacist. If the drug had not been prescribed, prescribers were contacted. The medication was dispensed and delivered to the ward in advance. The PT ensured all required medication was readily available on the ward. Data on PWT, time to process medication orders, cost of unused drugs and number of items available prior to attendance were collected for a 6 month period.
Total cost savings achieved due to returned unused medication amounted to £82 074.
To extend the role of the PT in PETC. Therefore, the PT will undertake basic medication reconciliation, assessment of patients’ own drugs and notify the clinical pharmacist of patients requiring a full medication review.
Introductory Statements and Governance
S. Antoniou, M. Sullivan, P. Wright, J. Quinn
The cardiac centre receives over 1800 acute admissions per year, with 20% of patients admitted on weekends. National reports highlight increased mortality at weekends, which has led to a call for the NHS to provide a consistent service throughout the week1. In accordance with the European statements of hospital pharmacy2, there was a need to ensure all prescriptions be reviewed and validated promptly on admission.
Implementation of a 7 day clinical pharmacy service to a newly merged cardiac centre.
A successful business case for additional resources allowed for expansion of existing service to be delivered. This facilitated change in working hours for frontline staff, including provision of a shift system ensuring the EU working time directive3 was not exceeded. Expansion of the ward based pharmacy technicians’ role to include ward based dispensing led to timely access to medicines. An increase in the visibility of pharmacy staff at the ward level facilitated a patient facing clinical pharmacy service over the 7 days.
All new admissions and discharges are reviewed at weekends with visits to coronary and intensive care. Medicines reconciliation within 24 h is above 95%. 98% of discharge medication is supplied at ward level and 93% prepared prior to discharge prescription written. Feedback from patients, nursing and medical staff has been extremely positive.
The service is currently provided for patients admitted within the cardiac services. A review is underway to consider staffing requirements to implement the service across the whole site and the trust.
Introductory Statements and Governance
A. Frisch, D. Scharlemann-Moenks, K. Heinitz, R. Frontini
Limited resources require optimisation of pharmacists’ interventions (EAHP Statement 1.3). Due to the limited number of clinical pharmacists (5/1350 beds) only a few wards were served by the pharmacy. We aimed to improve the effectiveness by covering selected patients in all wards and compared the results with a classic visit.
Instead of visiting all patients in selected wards, pharmacists focused on patients with critical renal insufficiency across all wards.
The central laboratory identified patients as high risk when their glomerular filtration rates were <30 ml/min, and alerted the pharmacy via email. For those patients, the renal pharmacist analysed the prescribed medication at least twice weekly throughout their hospital stay for medication errors, dosing and interactions, and suggested alternatives where necessary. Interventions were discussed either directly with the doctors or by written advice. The major obstacle was the fact that clinical services by pharmacists were unknown in most wards and that some of the doctors were sceptical about the pharmacist`s competency. We overcame these obstacles by intensive collaboration with the nephrology department.
Over 20 months involving 4229 visits, the renal pharmacist analysed the medication of 2125 patients who had 11 different drugs on average. The pharmacist assessed 47 584 medications, resulting in 2900 interventions, of which 1292 were renal and 1608 other. The most common interventions for renal patients were dosage adjustments (20%), contraindications (16%) and interactions (10%). Overall, the number of interventions (6.1% of medication items) and their severity across all renal insufficiency patients exceeded those on the visceral surgical ward (2.4%) over the same time as a comparator, confirming the higher effectiveness of the intervention.
To conduct further studies on medication safety, we established a centre for drug therapy safety in collaboration with the faculty of pharmacy with the aim of discovering valid criteria for identifying other high risk patients.
Introductory Statements and Governance
Lars-Åke Söderlund, Marie Olsson Nerfeldt , Birgitta Elfsson
Clinical Pharmacy Services
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Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
A. Navarro-Ruíz, C. Matoses-Chirivella, J.M. Del Moral-Sánchez, M. Morante, F.J. Rodríguez-Lucena, R. Gutiérrez-Vozmediano, A. Martínez-Valero, A. Andújar, E. García-Iranzo, A. Martí-LLorca
There is evidence of discontinuity medication between different health care levels. In fact, on admission to hospital, up to one in two patients has an incomplete medicine list , resulting in a medicine not being administered during the hospital stay. This situation could be associated with an increased risk of hospital readmission or adverse drug reaction (ADR). Some studies show that an elevated percentage of surgical patients take medications prior to surgery, cardiac medications principally, but almost 50% of the drugs are omitted on the day of surgery.
To develop a guideline to achieve the continuity of quality use of medicines between hospital and community in surgical patients.
The lack of medical evidence is reflected by the large variation in perioperative management recommendations among several group of experts. The recommendations in this guideline are to a large degree expert opinion, based on information from other reviews and textbooks, along with clinical experience. After a thorough review, the guide has obtained the consent of the Commission of pharmacy and therapeutics of the hospital.
The guide of conciliation of the medication includes a medication review structured according to the classification made by WHO ‘Anatomical, Therapeutic, Chemical classification system’. In each one of them, including the benefits and risks of continuing with this therapy during the perioperative process. It also includes various annexes, on antihypertensive, glucocorticoids and medicinal plants.
In the future, we would recommend prioritising the conciliation to the discharge with respect to other points of transition assistance, since the potential severity of an error of conciliation not intercepted the discharge of the patient is greater than if it occurs within the hospital.
Introductory Statements and Governance
L. Jeffery
Approximately 450 people work within clinical and ward pharmacy in hospitals in Denmark. Despite Denmark being a relatively small country, these services have developed at differing paces, and sometimes in different directions. The initiative was set up to coordinate development and innovation in this field, across the whole country.
A national group was established to coordinate and develop clinical and ward pharmacy services throughout Denmark. The working group consists of pharmacists and pharmaconomists representing the eight hospital pharmacies in Denmark.
In 2012/2013 fifteen people representing pharmacists and pharmaconomists from the five Danish regions were selected to the working group. These people were typically known to be experienced drivers of innovation and development in the field of clinical and ward pharmacy. The working group meets quarterly and additional work is carried out between meetings. There are no extra resources available to members of the group or their workplaces.
The group has produced and implemented minimum standards for ward pharmacy across Denmark. Benchmarking has been carried out using these standards and the baseline has been set. Progress will be measured regularly.
New standards for how often medicine shelf-life checks should be carried out on wards have been developed, resulting in the task being carried out less frequently on most wards, thus releasing resources to more clinically related tasks, at a time where extra resources are scarce.
Two national networking days for pharmacists and pharmaconomists have been held, where good initiatives are shared to all the regions and hospital pharmacies in Denmark.
The group is working on national standards for competency development of clinical pharmacy staff. Other logistics tasks will be scrutinized to see whether resources can be found for further investment in clinically related activities.
More benchmarking will be carried out, measuring other clinical and ward pharmacy activities throughout Denmark.
The work has just begun!
Introductory Statements and Governance
D. Campbell, W. Baqir, O. Crehan, R. Murray, N. Wake, R. Copeland
Supplementary prescribing was implemented as an attempt to reduce prescribing errors at the point of admission. Pharmacists working in more ‘traditional’ clinical roles would identify errors and then ask junior doctors to correct the mistakes made. Not only did this expose patients to unnecessary risks but this was an inefficient use of resources. Prescribing allowed pharmacists to work much more autonomously.
Our initiative was to implement pharmacist prescribing across an NHS hospital trust. We focused on developing and using generalist prescribing pharmacists to enhance their current ward based role. We have adopted an “anytime, anywhere” approach to prescribing, where the prescribing pharmacist, like their medical counterparts, can prescribe any medicine, for any patient, for any condition and in any setting.
Pharmacist supplementary prescribing commenced on a single ward, with staff working within a care plan, managing patients. Independent prescribing allowed prescribing service to be rolled out across the Trust. We now expect all pharmacists to obtain a prescribing qualification as a condition of employment. The pace of development was very much dependent on the rate at which pharmacists could be trained.
Supplementary prescribing on the admissions unit showed 39% (127/326) of patients audited were prescribed medication that otherwise would have been omitted. In 2014, of the 49 pharmacists employed, 29 (59.2%) are actively prescribing, with seven also having specialist roles. Seven pharmacists (14.3%) are currently in training. An audit of prescribing showed that pharmacists prescribed for 40% (182/457) patients accounting for 13% (680/5279) of all items. In a separate audit, 4 (0.3%) errors from 1413 items prescribed were detected.
This process has become embedded across our Trust. Regionally, other Trusts agreed a workforce strategy which included the development and deployment of prescribing pharmacists in the way we have described above.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Medication reconciliation at admission was implemented in our hospital in 2011 and since then we could hardly meet the expectations of clinicians (completion of a Best Possible Medication History (BPMH) for 70% of patients in less than 24 hours). We also observed that the high patient volume decreased the quality of our BPMH completion process.
We developed a strategy and an organisational thinking to remove human and technology barriers in performing medication reconciliation (MR). We designed a program to improve the overall quality of MR and increase the added value of MR for clinicians, nurses and pharmacists.
Our approach included four steps:
(1) “customer approach”; by conducting semi-structured interviews with students, clinicians and nurses to get their feedback, needs, expectations about medication reconciliation,
(2) literature review with Pubmed® and Embase®and benchmarking of other similar practices in France and Canada
(3) set a task force including pharmacists and students to define a strategy and metrics
(4) design solutions and assess them.
First, we defined and chose to target “High risk” admission inpatients only. Second, a training program based on two e-learning modules was implemented to develop skills of pharmacy students and residents. This program explores the “why” of conducting MR based on real life examples. It also defines the “what” (what is MR) and the “how” (i.e the different steps to run a MR and how to appropriately interact with the patient).
At each student rotation, the efficacy of the training program will be evaluated by comparing the concordance of BPMHs performed separately by a student and a pharmacist. A survey will be conducted to evaluate the level of learners’ satisfaction.
