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
MELINDA LITAO, HANY ELATROUSH , KHATHLEEN ESER, ARWA AFANA, AHMED BAIBRAHIM, JAYSON DE JUZMAN, BAYAN RAMBO, DERI PASCUAL, MA ENCARNACION DELOS ANGELES, MANAL SALLAM, MALIK KHUWAJA
STAT orders have always been a priority, however there are some areas which require some modification in the workflow to attain higher efficiency and to increase the percentage of STAT IV medicines, meeting the goal of being ready within 30 minutes.
A set of quality improvement interventions to increase the percentage of STAT IV medicines, meeting the goal of being ready within 30 minutes.
This was a pre-post study in a government hospital between January and September 2018. LEAN and FOCUS-PDCA models were implemented to design the process of improvement. A medication-tracking system (MedBoard) was used to collect the data to measure the number of STAT IV medicines ready within 30 minutes. Data was also collected from the number of phone calls and faxes received from the day procedure unit (DPU) and home health care unit (HHC).
The cumulative data showed an increase in the percentage of STAT IV medicines being ready by 7%, equivalent to 707 orders per month (90% vs 97%), a reduction in the number of phone calls by 87.5% (48 vs six calls per day) and fax by 100% from the DPU and HHC units, which means that implementing the set of interventions were associated with an increase in percentage of STAT IV medicines being ready within 30 minutes. Additionally, there was a significant decrease in the number of phone calls and faxes, which allowed pharmacists to focus more on STAT IV orders.
Since the hospital pharmacy receives numerous orders on a day-to-day basis, this will facilitate prioritisation during the entire process. This aligns with the hospital goal of attaining ‘zero harm’, and is therefore a good example of good practice in a hospital setting. The use of Medboard in tracking medications and monitoring performance can be applied to allow any healthcare setting to ensure that goals are reached, and performance is maintained at the highest level. Designing a list of eligible medications that can be ordered as STAT can be used as a guide to avoid the abuse of STAT orders and can help in prioritising order preparation in the STAT IV room.
Introductory Statements and Governance
Janne Jensen, Solvej Wandy Pedersen, Susanne Nørregaard, Karin Herkell, Anne Thestrup Nielsen, Anita Gorm Pedersen
A group of hospital pharmacists representing all hospital pharmacies in Denmark have in a previous study identified and slimmed a national portfolio of extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations used by Danish hospitals from a total of 2,754 preparations down to approximately 750 preparations being considered of clinical importance. Without a common overview of the national portfolio there will be initiated production of duplicates and almost identical products resulting in a large and inconsistent portfolio.
The purpose of this GPI was to make the national portfolio of extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations accessible to all hospital pharmacists in Denmark and to implement a common procedure to evaluate preparations before adding them to the national portfolio to avoid duplets and obsolete products.
A common national procedure for adding new preparations to the national portfolio was developed and implemented to avoid duplets and to ensure a uniform quality and appropriate risk assessment of the preparations.
A national database was developed and tested. Each hospital pharmacy entered their own extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations in the database. Also, the extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations manufactured by community pharmacies and used in the hospitals were entered in the database.
One hospital pharmacist in each of the five regions in Denmark was appointed as gatekeeper for the national portfolio. A template for an application form for new preparations was developed. When a physician requests a new preparation the application form will be completed by the clinical pharmacist. It is forwarded to the gatekeeper who will evaluate the preparation before approving it as a candidate for the national portfolio.
430 extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations from the hospital pharmacies are entered and quality approved in the database. 255 extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations manufactured by community pharmacies were entered in the database.
A national group of five gatekeepers was formed, and the workflow for both the group and the individual gatekeeper was described and implemented at all Danish hospital pharmacies.
The GPI provides an easy-accessible overview of the national portfolio of extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations, releasing production time and resources at the manufacturing pharmacies.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Elise Deyaert, Hilde Collier, Pieter-Jan Cortoos, Claudine Ligneel
Medication errors are often caused by insufficient knowledge among healthcare professionals. Given limited clinical pharmacists’ presence on Belgian hospital wards, a pharmacy-led MIS can efficiently provide fast, accurate and objective medication-related information.
We implemented the first Belgian Medicines Information Service (MIS) in our university hospital. In several countries, a MIS is common in most hospitals but until our project, no such MIS was available
in Belgian hospitals.
Best practices were researched through literature review and site visit at Charing Cross Hospital (London, UK). Secondly, in order to customize activities, all nurses and physicians were surveyed on medicines information needs. Our MIS was set up to centrally (1 dedicated pharmacist, phone number and e-mail address) receive medication-related questions from healthcare workers with the option to request additional clinical-pharmaceutical interventions (e.g. drug review). Implementation was accompanied by mailings, posters, business cards and presentations. All enquiries were registered in the MiDatabank® (UKMi National Medicines Information) and evaluated after 4 months, together with user satisfaction.
221 respondents (113 physicians, 103 nursing) to our survey found ‘drug administration/dosing’ (79.7%), interactions (69.6%) and ‘tablet crushing’ (49.7%) major problematic topics. Physicians rated the MIS to be useful for drug review, counselling and interactions while nursing preferred support on drug administration and tablet crushing. 96.8% intended to use the MIS.
Between 09/01 and 09/05/2017, our MIS received 247 enquiries (45.5% residents, 34.0% nursing, 13.8% clinical staff). Drug administration/dose-related questions (43.3%) was the most important category, followed by drug choice/indication (10.5%) and interactions (9.7%). 80.2% were answered within 1 hour (median: 11min). 81% of users mentioned the MIS improving their knowledge, with 59% and 56% reporting positive patient outcomes and time savings. Our MIS scored high on accessibility, timeliness, comprehensiveness and quality (average 4.34, 4.29, 4.42 and 4.47 on 5-point scale). MIS activity corresponded to 0.4FTE pharmacist with an average cost of €15.4/enquiry.
Our project shows that fast and reliable medication-related information is greatly needed. For the future, this service should be organized with other hospitals as to optimally use resources, share information and increase expertise. Also providing such service to primary care and patients will have be explored.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Karina Bentzen
Introducing biosimilar medicines in the clinical setting may significantly reduce hospital medicines expenditure – but only if the biosimilar medicines are used. Lack of knowledge and insecurities about biosimilar medicines among healthcare professionals and patients must to be addressed to ensure implementation in the clinical setting.
To facilitate the introduction of biosimilar medicines in Denmark, a special Taskforce was appointed. The aim was to enhance knowledge of biosimilar medicines among healthcare professionals and prepare implementation of biosimilar medicines in the clinical setting.
A special “Taskforce for introduction of biosimilars” was appointed. The Taskforce consisted of physicians including clinical pharmacologists, pharmacists, drug tender specialists and staff from the “Council for the Use of Expensive Hospital Drugs”, who issue national treatment guidelines.
Planning the introduction of biosimilar infliximab in Denmark started more than a year prior to the granting of marketing authorization. During this time, the Taskforce arranged seminars and facilitated meetings with specialists from the clinical setting to provide knowledge of biosimilars, to discuss the introduction of biosimilar medicines and how to switch patients. Based on these discussions the “Council for the Use of Expensive Hospital Drugs” dictated the use of biosimilar medicines nationally.
The Taskforce also created educational materials for doctors, nurses and patients and a “Q & A” website.
Biosimilars were adopted into the Danish market after a very quick introduction. The market share of the biosimilars was 95% within 3-4 months.
The price reduction after introducing biosimilar medicines was approx. 60%, and the quick implementation of the drugs in the clinical setting has significantly reduced medical costs.
Total annual savings in Denmark: 22 mio € (infliximab) and 15 mio €* (etanercept. * Estimate based on the first 6 months).
More new biosimilar medicines are expected to be introduced into the Danish market in the near future. The Taskforce will continue their work to ensure similar successful implementations.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Aude Desnoyer, Anne-Laure Blanc, Christian Skalafouris, Rolf Hauri, Alain Lorenz, Pascal Bonnabry, Bertrand Guignard
PIM (i.e. over-/under-/mis-prescriptions, and drug interactions) occurs frequently and is a well-known risk factor for adverse drug events and morbi-mortality (1). Its incidence is high and underestimated in internal medicine (2). While many paper checklists, providing explicit statements, related to PIM in geriatrics exist (3), none had been developed for adults in internal medicine. Moreover, as all these tools are only available as paper versions, they are not easily accessible in daily practice (4). Therefore, we decided to develop an electronic checklist, dedicated to adults in internal medicine.
We developed an electronic screening checklist to detect potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) in internal medicine.
We conducted a 4-step study including literature review, 17 semi-structured interviews, a 2-round Delphi survey, and a forward/back-translation process (French English) to develop PIM-Check (5). Sixty-five medical specialists and pharmacists, from 22 hospitals in Belgium, Canada, France, and Switzerland were enrolled. Experts agreed on 160 statements, in 17 medical domains, and 56 pathologies. These statements were then integrated in a specifically developed web-based electronic tool. Each statement is associated with at least one pathology and one medication (1600 ATC encoded).
The application is available in French and in English on a website (www.pimcheck.org). A “Screening” function allows users to select for a specific patient, his/her co-morbidities and medications to switch on statements that are the most relevant. A “Favourites” function, gives quick access to selected statements, and a “Learning” function gives access to the list of all statements, those unread and those already read. Details regarding the conception of the tool, direct access to the references (n=333) and useful links (n=29), publications related to the tool and a contact section, are also available. Between February and September 2016, PIM-Check has been visited more than 75.000 times, in over 66 countries.
Several studies assessing the impact of PIM-Check are ongoing. The algorithm and content of the tool are constantly updated. Thanks to the English version, PIM-Check can be used in different European countries and healthcare settings (6), and will be helpful to support clinical pharmacists’ education in appropriate prescription analysis.
