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.
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.
Production and Compounding
Paola Cristina Cappelletto, Linda Cappellazzo
Ensure complete digital tracking in closed loop of batches and expiry dates of anticancer drugs prepared in dose banding. Software Medical80© must be able to identify quickly the batches of the drug and solvent used to prepare the bag in dose banding and administered later to a specific patient, following a medical prescription.
In 2018, the Pharmacy Unit of Bolzano Hospital introduced automated preparation of fixed-dose anticancer drugs (gemcitabine, paclitaxel, rituximab, pembrolizumab) using Apoteca Chemo© [3]. Until now, the batches prepared have been partially tracked by the Bolzano hospital’s internal software (Indaco©). In 2025, new software called Medical80© was purchased. To digitalize the entire process of prescribing cytostatic drugs by the departments, it was developed a complete batch tracking in closed loop within the Medical80© software including also dose banding preparations. The hospital pharmacist collaborated with the software developers to ensure a safe and complete batch tracking system, in accordance with current regulations [1] and pharmacovigilance requirements [2].
The pharmacist responsible for the galenic area coordinated the activity. Initially, she requested the coding of dose banding preparation within a national database to assign a unique code to each preparation. Specific records for the individual bags prepared in dose banding were then coded, both in the warehouse software and in the prescription and medical record software. The codes automatically assigned by the warehouse program were then entered into Medical80©.
This process has enabled to fully track batches and check stock levels directly from the prescription and validation software. Once the batches have been set up, labels were printed and affixed to the bags, and the technician loaded the preparations into Medical80©, recording the batch and expiry date of the starting drug. This information was also recorded and tracked through barcode. At the time of prescription, the bag set up in advance was associated and tracked until administration to the patient.
Complete tracking from preparing dose-banded bags to delivery to the patient, ensured safe dispensing of the cytostatic drugs. The future goal is to digitalize the load of batches prepared in dose banding using an optical scanner in Medica80©.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Pinzon Garcia, Viviana Andrea
Fajardo Escolar, Angelica Paola
Since implementing the Opioid Stewardship Programme in 2018, we have improved the management of morphine and hydromorphone in our hospital. This has not only reduced medication waste, but also created a hospital culture that recognises the importance of standard single-dose in ensuring medication safety. Based on this, we extended the programme to include other controlled medicines, after identifying the need to limit the use of vials and ampoules of fentanyl, remifentanil and ketamine considering the available commercial presentations and the probability of using these products on multiple patients without maintaining their sterility.
We extended the coverage and monitoring of the unit-dose system to include other controlled medications apart from morphine and hydromorphone, through interdisciplinary collaboration between the Anaesthesia and Pharmacy Departments, with the aim of reducing waste and the risk of misuse at San Ignacio University Hospital, a high-level hospital in Bogotá, Colombia.
As part of the annual Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee operative plan, the pharmacy and anaesthesia departments evaluated the risks in the medication order cycle of opioids and other controlled medications, defining strategies using an improvement cycle model. We assessed the feasibility of preparing unit doses of these medications, as well as the storage, preservation conditions and logistics of medication inventory. We deployed the strategy through staff training, mainly in operating rooms, intensive care and resuscitation, and established a follow-up of consumption and adherence, records of remnant disposal, cases of naloxone use and events reported to the pharmacovigilance programme.
The average proportion of standard single-dose prescriptions in 2025 was 74% for hydromorphone, 77% for morphine, 84% for fentanyl and 50% for remifentanil. Through our compounding center, we prepared 143,854 doses of these medications in 2024 and 78,421 from January to August 2025. The inventory write-off percentage due to expiration was 1.06% in 2024 and 0.38% in the first eight months of 2025. The percentage of hospitalised patients who received naloxone was 0.20 in the first semester of 2024 and 0.17 in the first semester of 2025.
Conducting interdisciplinary rounds in services to identify on-site adherence to implemented practices and supportting Human Talent, maintaining the improvement cycle process.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Viviana Andrea Pinzon Garcia, Paula Camila Murcia Jaramillo, Reinaldo Grueso Angulo
In 2018, concerned with the opioid crisis in USA, the pharmacy and therapeutic committee began to work on safer opioid use; an initial diagnosis showed an increase in the use of in hospital opioids and a lack of protocol for the disposal of the resultant remnants. Standard single-dose syringes (SSDS) were devised to avoid remnants, subsequently noticing that the strategies to be used should involve the whole medication order cycle (MOC). This gave rise to the OSP, which involves physician’s pain management and prescribing practices, pharmacy preparing and dispensing process, nurse’s custody, administration and disposing protocols.
An Opioid Stewardship Programme (OSP) led by a multidisciplinary team: scientific direction, pharmacy and pain clinic, was implemented to ensure adequate and safe opioid prescription, dispensation, administration and disposing practices in San Ignacio University Hospital (HUSI), a tertiary level hospital in Bogota, Colombia.
Institutional pain practice guidelines were assessed, unifying the titration doses with SSDS and developing disposal protocols in which care staff is constantly being trained ever since. To trace the impact of the OSP, indicators for IV opioid consumption, SSDS prescription, naloxone use and guideline adherence were created.
Main obstacles on SSDS: <10% prescribing adherence, availability failures and dose expiration. In response, the whole ampoule prescription was narrowed to only pain specialists to face SSDS expiration costs and avoid shortage.
SSDS prescription proportion above 70% by July 2022, decreased milligram morphine equivalent (MME) consumption per hospital discharge (January 2019: 37, January 2020: 47, January 2021 (COVID 2nd surge): 39, January 2022: 25, July 2022 (COVID 3rd surge):16) and monthly costs decrease in 1997 USD, between 2019 and 2022.
An opioid shortage during the COVID surges, deepened in Colombia due to a hydromorphone recall, was avoided.
The OSP initiative could be replied in healthcare institutions considering our achievements. To keep working in a safer opioid MOC, our OSP has formulated new strategies with an active role of pharmacists, pain specialists and nurses oriented to: remnants disposal protocol, prescribing policies, medication error detection and healthcare staff and patient education.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Maja Kirstine Brøns, Gitte Borup
The purpose was to move medicine collection from the outpatient clinics to a MPB in order to reduce CO2-emission, due to less kilometers traveled by patients, to increase equal access to healthcare services, and to reduce physical patient contact during a global pandemic.
This was a pilot study that investigated a method for, and patient satisfaction with, delivery of specialized cost-free hospital medicines via Medicine Post Boxes (MPB) in rural areas.
The project was initiated by clinical pharmacists, who acted as interdisciplinary liaisons, who understood the clinical aspect of the medical treatment, the importance of good distribution practice and the logistic capacity at the hospital pharmacy. Having completed clinical controls via telephone, the clinic forwarded the information needed to the hospital pharmacy. Initially, all requisition forms were checked by clinical pharmacists to ensure complete information was given, and that documentation was performed properly. Once fully implemented, a task shifting onto pharmaconomist was done concerning the control of the requisitions, however initiation of cooperation and problem solving with the clinic was maintained as a pharmacist task.
Focus group interviews with doctors and nurses from the clinics expressed satisfaction with the flexibility of conducting clinical controls over the phone, and not having to handle the practical part of ordering, documenting and handing out medicines. No concerns of patient safety were expressed, and a wish for full coverage for medicine delivery via MPB was stated. A survey among the patients using the MPB was conducted: A total of 148 respondent participated of whom 98 % stated being ’very pleased’ or ’pleased’ with the service. Also, 98 % felt safe to ’a very high degree’ or ’high degree’ with using the MPB and 99 % wished to use the MPB again. Estimates of CO2 reduction have not yet been calculated.
MPB’s should be available in urban areas also, as it increases flexibility for the patients and healthcare professionals. The goal is to include all suitable clinics and patients who receive long term treatment with hospital medicines
