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.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Carmen Redondo Galán, Cristina Ortega Navarro, Ana de Lorenzo Pinto, Beatriz Torroba Sanz, Cecilia Martínez Fernández-Llamazares, Silvia Manrique Rodríguez, Álvaro Narrillos Moraza, Carmen Rodríguez González, Ana Herranz Alonso , María Sanjurjo Sáez
Transitions of care put the patients at risk for medication error as a result of poor communication and information loss. Treatment beginnings, complex treatment and medication reconciliation errors are an important cause of morbidity and have a predominant role in chronic complex patients (CCP). In this sense, collaboration and effective communication between hospital and community pharmacy are considered essential elements to guarantee continuity of patient care, obtaining better health results in terms of safety, effectiveness and efficiency.
Create and implement a collaborative network with direct communication between the Hospital Pharmacy Service of a tertiary hospital and the community pharmacies responsible for patient follow -up.
A multidisciplinary group of hospital pharmacists dedicated to different clinical areas was created: three pharmacists from the Emergency Department, two from the Paediatrics Department, one from the Neurology Department and one from the Outpatients area. They selected and contacted by telephone the 40 community pharmacies responsible for 25% of patient prescriptions in the area. Periodic meetings were scheduled and possible strategic lines of collaboration were shared. The following priority groups were identified: Group 1: CCP (paediatric patients and fragile elderly patients) and Group 2: patients treated in the hospital emergency department. We addressed logistical aspects (supplies and preparation of formulations), pharmacotherapeutic monitoring (adherence, adverse drug reactions and collaboration in the management of CCP). The main limitations were small population and short follow-up time.
From March 2023 to September 2023, the hospital Pharmacy Service has received 50 consultations on 45 patients from community pharmacies: 85% were classified as group 1 and 15% group 2. Pharmaceutical interventions were related to medical shortages (28%), reconciliation errors at discharge (22%), information about formulations (20%), information about new treatments (15%), prescribing errors (12%) and adverse drug reactions (3%). Community pharmacists appreciated accessibility and value of information provided by hospital pharmacists. 50% of patients avoided a hospital visit to solve their queries.
Our first results show the importance of pharmacist interventions with patients and other healthcare professionals.This collaborative network can be applicable to all services that work with community pharmacies to guarantee greater coordination and integration in the different healthcare settings.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Beatriz Somoza-Fernández, Vicente Escudero-Vilaplana, Cristina Ortega-Navarro, Ana de Lorenzo-Pinto, Ana Herranz-Alonso, María Sanjurjo-Sáez
HH units have experienced an extraordinary period of growth over the past few years and are already considered the preferred option of care model for most patients. However, its full potential is actually limited by some challenges both demanding and ripe with opportunities for pharmacy engagement, such as patient clinical complexity (usually elderly and chronic patients at greater risk of poor adherence and suffering from medication errors) and lack of medical staff physically available for monitoring patients’ evolution.
We developed and implemented a comprehensive pharmaceutical care programme in a home hospitalisation (HH) unit.
The project was conceived by a multidisciplinary team (physicians, pharmacists, and nurses) that conducted a literature review and developed a new home medication management standardised operating procedure. The team worked in the design of a HH pharmaceutical care guideline and the implementation of an e-health care tool for remote patient monitoring.
1. HH pharmaceutical care guideline: it included the directions for the following measures: (1) a comprehensive pharmaceutical assessment and medication reconciliation, (2) standardised recommendations for optimising acute and chronic treatments at home, (3) daily interviews with patients or caregivers to explain medication changes, and (4) follow-up calls 7 days after discharge in order to assess medication adherence.
2. HH monitoring app: this new tool ensures pharmacotherapeutic monitoring by setting medication schedules and intake notifications. The platform includes a patient recording for vital signs, side effects, medication intake, and health status (functional status and quality of life). The system enables online access for pharmacists and physicians in real-time and continuous two-way communication.
Since our programme is easily applicable to any HH unit, we are working on implementing it in other hospitals in our country, in order to overcome HH medication management complexity nationally. We aim to conduct a multicentre study to evaluate its external validity in terms of increasing medication errors detected and optimising hospital resources.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
BEATRIZ TORROBA-SANZ, CRISTINA ORTEGA-NAVARRO, ANA DE LORENZO-PINTO, CARMEN REDONDO-GALAN, JUAN ANTONIO ANDUEZA-LILLO, MARTA SANCHEZ-CELAYA POZO, ANA HERRANZ-ALONSO, MARÍA SANJURJO-SAEZ
Almost half of the patients discharged from the ED receive incomplete information at discharge and they forget approximately 60% of the medical information received when they leave the hospital. All these hinders the proper management of medication at home, generating anxiety to patients and favoring the appearance of adverse events and new visits to the hospital.
We have designed, implemented and evaluated a tool to resolve pharmacotherapeutic queries of patients discharged from the Emergency Department (ED).
Patients with doubts about the pharmacological treatment prescribed upon discharge can contact FarmaCenter through the instructions included in the discharge report (telephone/email). The pharmacist will then analyze each query, gathering information from the clinical history and, if necessary, contact the care-team for resolution. Finally, the pharmacist will contact the patient, resolve the query and offer the opportunity to complete a satisfaction survey.
766 consultations were received (November 2022- 31 August 2023), mean age was 49.8 years and 49.3% were men. The majority (96%) contacted by telephone and the mean time of resolution was 1.5 hours. Half of the cases (53.7%) were resolved by the hospital pharmacist without the necessity of contacting the rest of the healthcare team. The main reasons for consultation were: medication not prescribed (28.3%), drug administration (8.7%), management of adverse reactions (6.9%), shortages (6.8%), dosage (5.9%) and duration of treatment (5.7%). 15.5% of consultations were not related to medication. The satisfaction survey was sent to 288 patients and 40% responded. The overall rating was 4.9/5 and the most highly valued aspects were the individualized attention, fast resolution of the query and the pharmacist’s kindness. In addition, 95% of patients considered that FarmaCenter had helped them to avoid a visit to a healthcare center.
Developing improvement strategies to reduce the number of patients with medication-related concerns from the ED.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Hilde Omestad, Maria Grønkjær Abrahamsen, Fatima Afif Mouaanaki, Charlotte Mosbæk Dybdahl, Anne Wulff Petersen, Emil Dalsgaard Züricho, Philip Hojrizi, Charlotte Arp Sørensen
The sustainability strategy of the Central Denmark Region include less consumption and less waste. Our Pharmacy delivers an increasing amount of high-cost homecare medications, requiring refrigerator storage. In case of an accidental temperature exposure, patients may ask whether their medicine can be used or not. There may be a delay during transport or a breakdown of their refrigerator at home. During these medicines’ shelf-lives, most products can be kept at room temperature for days, weeks or months. When SmPC and the insert package leaflet says that the product should not be returned to the refrigerator, high-cost medicines sometimes are wasted, only because of this warning, instead of giving them a shorter shelf-life. When we hesitate to return packages to the refrigerator, time can elapse while waiting for the manufacturer’s or pharmacist’s answers to the patient’s questions after storage incidents.
The Hospital Pharmacy categorized 47 Blood Coagulation Factors and Monoclonal Antibody Products requiring storage at 2-8 °C if Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) had any warning of returning a product to the refrigerator or not, after an unwanted time at room temperature
We asked manufacturers if a return of their product to the refrigerator would cause any harm. Should their product be disposed of because it has been put back into a refrigerator after being left out? Our findings were documented in a local guideline and in the Danish national information database (SAID).
Drug Information Pharmacists discussed several cases of real-world handling situations to be more confident to reduce medicine wastage.
Being aware of the reasons for these warnings, reduced medicine wastage in certain cases of incidental storage. The pharmacists have been given tools for pharmaceutical professional assessments in cases of temperature challenges.
Spread the good news. Improve communication between manufacturer and pharmacy, because manufacturer can’t be responsible for storage different from their SmPC. Inspire manufacturers to improve their storage warnings in SmPC
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Nina RANJIT, Matthieu GALLET, Anthony TRIPLET, Myriam QUERMONNE , Alexandre COCHET
The rise of RLT is seeing the emergence of new treatments, using radioisotopes such as 177Lu or 223Ra. The radioactive nature of these treatments raises questions from patients. The aim of pharmaceutical consultations (PCs) is to respond to them by providing appropriate information on treatment modalities, adverse effects (AEs) and radiation protection rules. Thus, we carry out a PC at the initiation of an RIV for all new patients from January 2022 for PLUVICTO.
Radioligand therapy (RLT) consists of the administration of a radioactive drug. It makes it possible to treat cancer patients by specifically targeting tumour cells and destroying them using ionising radiation.
These particular treatments raise questions from patients. This is why we have implemented pharmaceutical interviews since 2022 and the beginning of RLT by PLUVICTO® during the first treatment, for all patients concerned. Subsequently, these consultations were extended to other therapies (lutathera, xofigo).
Before initiating RLT to a new patient, radiopharmacists check the eligibility of patients and the conformity of the indication. A few days before the first treatment, the patient’s file is consulted and important information is noted (urinary or fecal incontinence, digestive problems, biological assessment, co-medications). The day of the treatment, a personalized care plan is drawn up by the radiopharmacist and an information sheet bringing together information on the treatment (interval of treatments, dose, etc.), side effects and their management and the rules of radiation protection are provided. to the patient.
Collaboration with nuclear doctors has been set up to optimise patient care and information.
When necessary, pharmaceutical interventions are formulated directly to the clinician and plotted in a table.
Facing the success of these PCs we implement them for lutathera and xofigo, the two other RLT available.
In case of side effects, we also declare it to the pharmacovigilance service and give advice to patients and/or clinicians for manage them.
All documents are recorded in the computerised patient file.
The next step is to evaluate patient’s comprehension before the first interview to adapt its content to the patient.
We also would like to evaluate the patient’s satisfaction and expectations.
Discussions are underway to financially promote these tripartite consultations as exists for oral chemotherapy consultations.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Vanessa Gomes, Jonathan De Gregori, Greta Dusabe, Hélène Feyeux, Cyril Boronad
MiS is a telephone service that provides free, reliable information about medicines to all patients and their caregivers. Requests are handled by experienced hospital pharmacists. It is important to know how patients behave after calling MiS in order to assess the benefits of this service on the proper use of medicines.
The aim of this study was to assess patients’ behaviour regarding their medication after calling the MiS.
After prior agreement, patients were called back 7 days later to answer a specific survey including six questions: Was the medication changed after the call? Did the patient follow the advice of the MiS pharmacist? Did the patient consult a doctor? or another source of information? Did the patient feel that their health had improved? What are the benefits of this service?
Between 2024/03/05 and 2024/03/18, 20 callers completed the survey (65%). Most questions concerned drug interactions (48%), followed by side effects (22%), drug stability (7%), administrative information (7%), indications/contraindications (7%), product availability (3,%), proper use (3%) and dosage (3%). Thanks to the advice of MiS pharmacists, 47% of callers started taking their medication: half of these were prescribed by their doctor and the other half self-administered. Around a third of treatments were continued without change, while 6% were modified. Finally, 12% of treatments were discontinued because of side effects. After calling MiS, 15% of patients consulted a doctor and 15% consulted other sources of information (neighbours, health professionals, etc.). More than half of the patients felt that their health had improved after calling MiS. Lastly, 70% of patients described MiS as safe, 40% as accessible, 35% as available and 30% as a time-saver.
The demand for MiS shows that patients are looking for more information about their treatments, even if they have already consulted a healthcare professional. The number of treatments prescribed by the doctor that were only initiated after the call also illustrates the benefits of the MiS service. It is an additional service that can reassure callers and contribute to the proper use of medicines by conveying a positive image of treatments and information suited to callers’ knowledge.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Joana Pinto, José Feio, Sebastião Silva, Francisco Machado, Ana Dinis, Margarida Abreu, João Peres, Mariana Guia
Clinical decision support systems comprising information on DDI improve DDI risk detection, avoiding preventable patient harm. The resulting DDI alerts can change prescribers’ behaviour to benefit patient care. However, an excessive number of alerts can lead to alerts’ desensitisation by prescribers.
We monitored the drug-drug interactions (DDI) alerts displayed in the prescription system through three subsequent homologous periods, occurring after the integration of a DDI database in the prescribing software system of a teaching hospital to assess its impact on the prescribing pattern.
We developed a DDI database – MedH® – to be integrated into the prescribing software system to support hard stop DDI alerts. only the higher clinical risk DDIs were included in this database in order to restrain the burden of alerts and warrant acceptance by health professionals.
Data of all inpatient hospital prescriptions over a 12-month period prior to MedH® implementation were extracted and intersected with MedH® DDI BD to identify the top 10 co-prescribed binomials at risk of severe DDI. The number of alerts for the same binomials was then monitored through three subsequent, post-implementation, homologous periods.
Considered the TOP10 observed in the pre-implementation period, the number of alerts for all binomials has consistently reduced over the three post-implementation periods analysed.
The integration of MedH® DDI BD into the prescribing system, resulted in changes in the prescribing pattern, translated by a decrease, between 67% and 100%, in the number of alerts for a sample of control risk binomials coinciding with the top 10 co-prescribed risk binomials observed in the pre-implementation period. These results reflect the good acceptance by the professionals and the didactic effect achieved by the exposure to alerts.
More importantly, these results are indicative of the effectiveness of the implementation of MedH® Alerts in reducing patient exposure to high-risk combinations of medicines, thus promoting patient safety.
It will be important to ensure that data from IDD alerts are rigorously analysed to recognise clinical situations in which the co-administration of risk binomials is justified, to ensure consistent application of recommended risk minimisation measures, and the availability of safer therapeutic alternatives whenever possible.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
NURIA FERNANDEZ PIÑEIRO, CRISTINA GONZALEZ PEREZ, LIDIA YBAÑEZ GARCIA, NATALIA SANCHEZ-OCAÑA MARTÍN, JOSE MANUEL MARTINEZ SESMERO
In our area all care for PrEP users was centralised in a specialised centre. Here, a multidisciplinary team made up of doctors, nurses and pharmacists integrated in a patient-centred care model. PrEP users are a potentially vulnerable population. Health education and motivation are provided in the PhC consultations to raise awareness about the use of medication and adherence to treatment, which are key to avoiding HIV infection. The use of sex-related drugs is a growing health problem in this population and has been associated with increased HIV transmission risk.
Development and implementation of a monographic pharmaceutical care (PhC) consultation for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users.
On 20 January 2020, the PhC consultation was launched in a monographic STI care centre linked to a tertiary hospital.
– On the same day as the first medical appointment, the user attends a PhC appointment. In this unit the user receives the necessary information to properly take the medication. Possible interactions are reviewed, not only with medications, but also with natural medicine, sports supplements and drugs. All doubts are resolved and the medication is dispensed.
– Every 3 months medical follow-up is carried out and, in the PhC consultation, where not only possible adverse effects are reviewed, but also adherence and related problems are specially monitored. To increase the quality of care, active communication between all health personnel was ensured.
Until 30 September 2022, 3,460 initial visits and 13,349 follow-up visits have been made (411 of them through telepharmacy during the lockdown as a result of the global pandemic by SARS-CoV-2). From the users, 98.98% were men who have sex with men (MSM), 0.80% transgender women, 0.04% transgender men and 0.18% were women. 70.3% used sex-related drugs (Chemsex), with the most used substances being Popper (37.1%), mephedrone (28.2%) and gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) (24.6%).
In our experience, the role of hospital pharmacists as a reference health personnel for HIV-PrEP users has become clear, not only as an expert in medication. Given the prevalence of drug use in this population makes the health education that we hospital pharmacists can provide especially important.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Annamaria Tesse, Cataldo Procacci, Domenica Ancona, Salvatore Lenti
Often the elderly patient suffers from several pathologies at once and commonly he is in polytherapy. According to the Italian Ministerial Recommendation No. 17, errors in drug therapy can cause serious harm to the patient. By increasing the patient’s awareness and reducing the number of potentially inappropriate prescriptions, it will be possible to improve the effectiveness of therapies and to reduce side effects.
In an Internal Medicine department, the concurrence between doctors and pharmacists has led to a project that aims to reduce duplications of therapy and to improve the health status of the patients. This through pharmacological recognition and subsequent therapeutic reconciliation carried out on patients in discharge.
In Internal Medicine ward, from June to August 2022, we gather the terapies for 48 hospitalised patients aged over 65 years and suffering from two or more chronic diseases. Reconciliation boards were then developed using Intercheck Web a “Mario Negri” Institute of Pharmacological Research’s software. Sequentially the physician, according to the chemist, proceeded to remodulate the therapies especially in those cases where there were serious interactions.
140 drug interactions were detected, on average 2.91 interactions per patient. Especially, 16 class D (very serious), 22 class C (major), 83 class B (moderate), 19 class A (minor) reactions were archived. The modified or partially modified therapies at discharge were 71%. This restriction bought to a curtailment of drugs taken and a removal of unnecessary drugs.
The team are doing a patient follow-up to six months and a year so earlier results will be soon available. Reducing drug intake is possible, and it involves a downsizing in side effects and in an increase in patient compliance. Information to the patient is essential and, by using this procedure on a large scale, it will be possible to optimise the management of the chronic patient at home and inpatient care.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Ana Rita Silva, Cláudia Santos
Low-risk pregnant women are also prone to suffer from minor pathological conditions, such as migraines, low back pain, gastrointestinal disorders. In view of this particularity, collaboration was requested from the pharmaceutical services to prepare a therapeutic guide to make available to all doctors in the hospital, in particular general and family medicine.
Develop a pocket guide with OTC medicines classification in pregnant women for the following symptoms: pain control; colds; gastrointestinal changes and skin changes, according to Food and Drug Association (FDA) classification, for general and family practice physicians in the hospital.
It was necessary to define which pathologies/symptoms we would focus on, this choice was made in collaboration with the person responsible for the obstetrics service. Then, focusing our work on low-risk pregnant women, we selected some drugs that are prescribed to non-pregnant women for chosen pathologies/symptomatologies. These drugs were thus analysed in view of their safe use in low-risk pregnant women using tools such as the summary of drug characteristics, the FDA website, the UpToDate online platform. The guide was made available to general and family physicians.
The drug classification was compiled in a table organised by INN, divided by pathology/symptomatology, with the FDA classification and also a column with a pictogram indicating the safety of the drug for use during pregnancy. The acceptance by clinicians was very positive, reinforcing that it is important to pay special attention when prescribing in the 1st and 3rd trimester of pregnancy, use the lowest effective dose and for the shortest possible period, avoid using “new” drugs unless there are safety studies.
The next step to support clinicians will be to develop other tools to help prescribe other classes of drugs as well as another population group, such as safe drugs in breastfeeding.
