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.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
SS Suvi Sivula, JN Jonna Niemi, KM Konsta Malmi, EA Elina Ahomäki
In 2021, over 110,000 kilograms of pharmaceutical waste was produced at HUS Helsinki University Hospital, Finland (HUS). That was almost 2.5 million euros when the value of the medicines and the pharmaceutical waste management costs were considered. In 2022, HUS Pharmacy launched a project to reduce pharmaceutical waste, both for economic and environmental reasons.
The goal was to reduce the annual pharmaceutical waste in euros and in kilograms at HUS, primarily at the Pharmacy. We also aimed to help departments to reduce their pharmaceutical waste.
The project group was formed of about 15 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians from different units of HUS Pharmacy, located in different areas in Southern Finland. The project team met monthly to review the costs and causes of pharmaceutical waste at the Pharmacy. The team discussed challenges, shared good practices and came up with ideas. In addition, departments were supported in reducing pharmaceutical waste with lectures, materials, videos etc.
During the project we found three main reasons for producing pharmaceutical waste: expired products, residues of cytotoxic drugs and compounding errors. To avoid these, we created a better overview on the whole stock of the Pharmacy, internal communication was increased, and products were moved more actively between units. Unit-specific procedures were also developed, collaboration with departments was increased, and published studies were used especially to reduce cytotoxic waste.
During the project, the annual value of wasted pharmaceuticals at the Pharmacy decreased from 928,000 euros (year 2021) to 507,000 euros (year 2023). In addition, the annual amount of pharmaceutical waste at HUS reduced from 112 000 kilograms to 101 000 kilograms. Also, the total cost of pharmaceutical waste at HUS, including the value of wasted pharmaceuticals, decreased.
The project team’s work has become a permanent part of our work instead of a project.
Collaboration between all healthcare workers is in a key role for reducing pharmaceutical waste. Waste cannot be completely avoided, but it can be reduced significantly, as our project has revealed.
Procedures must be developed further, for example early notifications from departments to the Pharmacy about changes in medical practices are critical for managing our stock.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Gutiérrez Palomo, S; Guillén Martínez, O; Miralles Andreu, G; Jiménez Pulido, IP; Soriano Irigaray, L; Murcia López, AC.
Pharmacy Service(PS)initiates the evaluation, management and procurement of medicines in exceptional circumstances(MEC), a complex process in terms of each treatment requeriment, the regulatory agencies/professionals involved and the phases/timescales of the evaluation process, which can be improved by the implementation of technology.
The objective is to describe the implementation of a specific informatic platform(IP)for the use of MEC in a PS.
The IP was implemented in September 2023 to centralize the request MEC process by the optimization of their monitoring and evaluation and to promote specific management knowledge for each treatment.
1. The responsible physician contacts the PS to initiate a treatment considered as MEC, submitting an individualised prescription per patient.
2. The PS determines the specific treatment procedure and the authorizations needed to make the request to the responsible agency.
3. The PS introduces the request into the IP and attaches the corresponding individualised treatment document.
4. With the agreement and signature of the PS head, the request is sent to the Hospital Director for evaluation and conformity, recording the date of processing in the IP.
5. After having the hospital approvals, PS sends the request to the corresponding agency, attaching the document in the IP.
6. Once the request has been assessed by the apropriate health agency, the resolution document is attached in the IP, recording the resolution date and updating its status.
7. The IP is connected to the electronic medical record program , generating an automatic report with the request resolution in the patient’s medical record.
Since September 2023, 217 MEC requests have been received. As for their resolution, 190(88%) were authorised, 14(6%)pending resolution, 9(4%) refused and 4(2%)cancelled. By medical services, the most requests were distributed as follows: 69(32%) oncology, 27(12%) haematology, 18(8%) neurology, 16(7%) anaesthesiology, 14 (6%) cardiology. The drugs with the most requests were: glycopyrronium(16), atezolizumab(9), cysplatine(8), pembrolizumab(7), bevacizumab(6), mavacamten(6), nadolol(6), labetalol(6).
A simple, user-friendly and highly useful platform that can be implemented in any PS with a pharmacist specialised in the management of MEC and included in multidisciplinary teams.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Hamza TAJRI, Abdelhafid BENOMAR, Houda ATTJIOUI, Majda BENABBES, Madiha ALAMI CHENTOUFI
The sterilization of reusable medical devices is important for ensuring patient safety in hospital environments. However, the complexity of this process poses significant risks. The Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) method offers a systematic approach to identify and mitigate these risks, thus enhancing the overall safety of sterilization practices.
This work aimed to optimize the sterilization process at our hospital by applying the FMECA method. The focus was on evaluating each stage of the sterilization process, from pre-disinfection to storage and distribution.
A comprehensive FMECA was conducted on the eight main stages of the sterilization process: pre-disinfection, washing, rinsing, drying, packaging, sterilization, batch control and release, and storage and distribution. Each potential failure mode was evaluated in terms of severity (G), occurrence (O), and detectability (D) on a scale from 1 to 5, enabling the calculation of the Risk Priority Index (RPI).
The analysis revealed that contamination during drying and ineffective sterilization had the highest Risk Priority Numbers (RPNs), indicating the most critical risks in the process. As a result, these stages require special attention and priority corrective actions. The study also highlighted significant risks in other sterilization steps, underlining the importance of a comprehensive approach to risk management.
The application of FMECA has enabled us to identify critical areas within the sterilization circuit. Moving forward, we will implement targeted improvement strategies focusing on increased monitoring, preventive maintenance of instruments, and enhanced staff training, particularly regarding drying and sterilization processes.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
A. KANDEL (1), L. CABRIT (1), C. HUMARAUT (1), A. MASSRI (2), C. TAILHADES (1), S. ARRAKI ZAVA (1), V. GRENOUILLEAU (1)
(1) Pharmacy Department, Medical Devices Unit, Pau Hospital Center, France
(2) Intensive care unit, Pau Hospital Center, France
Medical devices (MDs) and drugs account for 55% of the carbon footprint of a hospital’s French healthcare system, making this sector a key focus for the ecological transition. The MD sector alone is responsible for 32% of our hospital’s CO2 emissions, underlining the need to rethink our practices in order to reduce our environmental impact.
Elimination of waste produced unnecessarily by optimising customised packs (CP) containing the MD required for treatment.
After a multidisciplinary team (pharmacists, intensive care units, anaesthetists, nurses) was put together, packs containing unused medical devices (UMD) were identified in 2 pilot departments: anaesthesia and intensive care. The packs were weighed with and without the UMD. The savings in terms of waste weight and carbon footprint were calculated according to the type of waste: general waste or biohazardous waste. In conjunction with the medical teams and suppliers, the re-evaluation of the MD required and the withdrawal of UMDs led to the updating of CP in the pilot departments.
The packs identified include: the suture pack (SP), the central venous line pack (CVL) and the epidural pack (EP). Over one year, the weight of waste avoided was: 64 kg for the SP, 87 kg for the CVL pack, 55 kg for the EP. After modifying these packs, annual CO2 emissions were reduced by 55% for the SP, 14% for the CVL pack and 8% for the EP, with a total annual saving of €5,423. The annual weight of waste was reduced by 206 kg, a saving of 92 kg of CO2: the equivalent of 86 Paris-London train journeys.
The re-evaluation of CP can generate a significant ecological impact. This initiative is intended to be rolled out on an institutional scale, with the active collaboration of the sustainable development department, and as part of future calls for tender. These adjustments save time for care staff, significantly reduce the carbon footprint, and contribute to the ecological transition. It is essential to strike a balance between economic and environmental imperatives, given the financial constraints facing public hospitals.
Introductory Statements and Governance
Aldo De Luca, Andrea Ghiori, Cecilia Orsi, Michele Cecchi
CNN drugs are drugs that have obtained authorisation from EMA and AIFA (Italian drugs authority) but that have not been negotiated for the purposes of the reimbursement of the National Health System. These drugs are often clinical innovations that fill therapeutic gaps. In our Region, access to these therapies is allowed only on a special request made by the clinicians at the Pharmacy that is evaluated positively, presents it to the Regional Authority. The regional assessment is also implied by the presence of specific contractual agreements with the pharmaceutical companies. Requests have been considered for enfortumab vedotin (EV), indicated for urothelial carcinoma, and trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd), indicated for breast cancer. The objective of this article is to highlight the activity of the pharmacist in the management of drugs in the CNN range.
A pathway has been developed at regional level to promote early access to new drugs and further therapeutic possibilities.
All requests for CNN drugs received in the semester November 2022 to May 2023 to our Operations Unit and subsequently included in the regional portal were analysed on the basis of approved indications, bibliography, clinical reports, and eligibility card (for T-DXd only) validated by the medical division of the pharmaceutical company.
During the period analysed, 25 applications were made (11 for EV, 14 for T-DXd) for a total of 30 treatments (11 for EV, 19 for T-DXd). Of the 25 requests received by the Pharmacy, 24 (96%) were sent to the region for treatment authorisation; one was not submitted because the patient did not comply with the approved indication. We obtained 100% of the required treatment approvals.
The hospital pharmacist is configured as a collector of clinical requests with an important function as a filter of prescriptive appropriateness in requesting regional authorisation for the treatment of drugs in the CNN range; moreover, the pharmacist is a necessary reference figure between the need for clinical innovation and the need to guarantee sustainability of the system in order to ensure early access to innovative therapeutic opportunities. This model could be exported to other regions at national and European level.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Sara Rodrigues, Sofia Pinheiro, Vandewalle Björn, Paulo Martins, Sofia Ferreira, Paulo Pereria, Jorge Félix
Shared decision-making between pharmacists and physicians is key to PTC functioning and efficiency. Responsibilities include managing policies and procedures for appropriate use of high quality and cost-effective health technologies at hospitals. PTC performance is paramount to overall hospital efficiency.
This project seeks to assess and redesign (optimize) existing Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committees (PTC) procedures within a University Hospital Centre (UHC – six public hospitals). The goal is to enable sound decision-making that significantly contributes to UHC key performance indicators, all while ensuring timely patient access to effective medication.
The project comprises four phases: (1) gathering feedback from stakeholders (PTC members; hospital service/pharmaceutical department directors) regarding their current involvement in PTC information flows, procedures, and decision-making; (2) developing a value-based criteria-matrix, across stakeholders, in a multiple-criteria decision analysis context, to guide future PTC decision-making; (3) rethinking PTC procedures and information flows; (4) assessing the effectiveness of the redesigned PTC model after 12 months. First phase included: a Likert-scale based survey1 for PTC members to evaluate their involvement in activities described in the internal PTC regulation, and a semi-structured interview-based survey2 for all stakeholders to characterize existing information flows and PTC mediated decision-making processes.
First phase: eight of 10 PTC members participated in survey1. Activities with 100% engagement of PTC members: prescription reviews; coordination with National PTC; monitoring of medicine utilization, antibiotics resistance and safety; advise the UHC management board. Activities with major non-engagement: monitoring/reporting of complementary diagnostics prescription (87.5%); medication therapy management programs (62.5%); National pharmacovigilance system activities (62.5%); therapy cost assessment (50%). In survey2 (n=14) authorization process for medicines utilization was accurately characterized, clearly identifying responsibilities for all clinical and pharmaceutical departments. Heterogeneity exists between urgent and non-urgent utilization requests. PTC members and pharmacy departments were more likely to use electronic platforms than clinical departments.
Next phases are under way to better support current competencies, information flows, procedures, and the shared decision-making processes offering an opportunity to rethink the PTC procedures in the University Hospital Centre and leverage efficiency over hospital complexity.
Introductory Statements and Governance
Florent MARTY, Sephora BELO-KIBABU, Driss CHAOUI, Jean-Luc PONS, Romy LINOSSIER-ROCHER
Over the last few years, French healthcare establishments have been moving towards a more ambulatory approach to medical care. The growing number of patients treated in OPH has necessitated a reorganisation of these units. Staff at the onco-haematology OPH and the team at the centralised cytotoxic preparation unit in our hospital have reported organisational problems affecting the care pathway for patients admitted to the unit, leading to excessive delays in treatment and long waiting times for patients. Waiting time is one of the best measures of the quality of care provided.
The project is to improve the overall patient flow within the outpatient hospital (OPH) service by reducing so-called non-value-added and compressible waiting times, without affecting the quality of patient care. This should have an impact on the flow of onco-haematology patients and therefore enable the OPH to operate more smoothly. Improvement actions must be simple, quick, easy to implement and inexpensive.
Data collection (waiting times, volume of activity) was carried out using: patient pathway mapping, observation grid, nurse and haematologist questionnaire, Actidiag software. Application of Lean through the development and facilitation of Kaizen workshops. The improvement actions were chosen during a brainstorming session between haematologists, pharmacists and nurses. A new data collection is then carried out and the results compared.
The stays of 64 patients were studied before optimization and compared with those of 79 patients after optimization. Improvement actions include : creation of a shared file, installation of a giant screen in the department connected to the new file, anticipation of preparations. Countermeasures reduced overall waiting times by 42%, cutting the patient’s length of stay by 53 minutes. The care time represents 54.6% of the time spent in the OPH, compared with 41.2% previously. This has also enabled the department to take on 18% more patients.
Healthcare professionals have noted a smoother flow of activity, making the care pathway more fluid and enabling patients to spend less time in the department, without impacting on patient care. This results in better rotation of OPH beds using a simple and easily reproducible method.
Education and Research
Pascaline Hubot , Elise Francq, Guy Stichelbaut
Hospital pharmacy is a constantly evolving field that requires ongoing training. New teaching strategies based on the gamification of educational objectives have been making headlines for several years. These include EG.
An educational escape game (EG) has been designed and implemented for hospital pharmacists and pharmaceutical-technical assistants (Apth) working in one of Chirec’s distribution departments (Belgium). The objectives were : to provide continuing education and to improve various cross-disciplinary skills such as communication, team cohesion and critical thinking.
After considering the various constraints (dedicated time per session, number of players, etc.), a non-linear scenario was constructed. Distribution-specific themes were chosen for the creation of 12 enigmas, some in paper format and others in virtual format using Genially platform (November 2022 version). To ensure that the training sessions ran smoothly, hint envelopes containing the updated procedures were provided. Finally, the EG was pilot tested to get an idea of the game’s timing, to identify and correct any practical problems, and to adapt certain enigmas deemed too complex if necessary.
Nine sessions were held between December 2022 and September 2023. Each session included : briefing (5’), EG session (45’), debriefing (10’) and the distribution of an anonymous satisfaction survey at the end of the session (2’). Pharmacists (n = 24) and Apth (n = 15) respectively agreed (37.5% (n = 9) ; 66.7% (n = 10)) and strongly agreed (54.2 % (n = 13) ; 20% (n = 3)) that the EG improved their knowledge, and all participants found the EG to be a good teaching tool. Feedback was also very positive on cross-functional skills such as communication, team cohesion and critical thinking.
Futures sessions will be planned for newcomers to the pharmacy. Given the popularity of this educational tool and the suggestions for new topics, a new EG theme will certainly be on the agenda for 2024 pharmacy continuing education.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Moisés Couñago-Fernández, Marisol Samartín-Ucha, Ana María Regueira-Arcay, Sonia González-Costas, María Alfonsín-Lara, Paula Prado-Montes, Iván Agra-Blanco, Elena Cerdeira-Regueira, Noemí Martínez-López de Castro
When a new pharmaceutical product should be introduced in a hospital, a multitude of factors must be considered in order to choose a specific brand. A lack of uniformity in the criteria for the selection of new medicines has been detected. To avoid selection errors or arbitrary decisions, a selection structured algorithm was developed using quality tools according to management quality system ISO 9001-2015.
To ensure that the process of selecting from several pharmaceutical companies fulfil the requirements of quality and lower cost, a decision-making process for these purchases was designed, through a structured method for the evaluation of new pharmaceutical products based on standardised evaluation criteria.
A multidisciplinary group was created focused on making decisions about criteria. All stakeholders were represented (management pharmacist, quality experts, management assistant and pharmacy director). Also, a survey was given to different specialist pharmacists to complete the criteria. Second, criteria were categorised according to their importance or potential impact in pharmacy practice or patient.
The algorithm took into account aspects related to: a)pharmaceutical company and b)aspects related to the pharmaceutical product. Each of these aspects is valued as a percentage.
a)Pharmaceutical company: 40% of the score was based on not having a repeated history of stock-outs, 45% on the evaluation of the provider according to an internal file based on incidences registered, and 15% if the provider was already a known supplier.
b)Pharmaceutical product: 50% was based on the cost of the medicine, 15% unit dose presentation (if applicable), 10% expiry conditions of the medicine, 5% allergens, 5% if it was presented in a pre-filled pen (if applicable), 5% if it could be stored at room temperature, 5% if the drug is supplied in diluted vials (in the case of parenteral medicines) and 5% if it had all the possible indications in the technical data sheet.
This methodology has been used successfully in recent months with the pharmaceutical supplier changes of abiraterone and sugammadex.
This tool will be used for all changes of medicine brands and new drugs purchased in the hospital, enabling uniformity in the purchasing process for all new drugs.
Production and Compounding
Annemarie Aart van der – Beek van der, Mattijs Maris, Erwin Koetse, Alex Hol, Meilof Feiken
Hospital Pharmacies and especially the laboratories produce wastewater containing medicine residue. When this wastewater is discharged into sewage it contributes to the load of pharmaceutical residue and ultimately to pollution of surface-, ground and drinking water. To reduce this load, waste can be collected and transported to a processing facility for incineration and deactivation or alternatively treated locally. Our goal was to develop a practically applicable method that could effectively reduce the pharmaceutical sewage load locally, at the source.
We developed a practical, compact, disposable filtration system that can be used on-site to reduce the amount of pharmaceutical residue in wastewater of our pharmaceutical laboratory. We tested and optimized the composition of the filter to effectively collect organic substances from locally produced wastewater (influent). We monitored filter performance and durability by analysis of filtrates (effluent).
Laboratory wastewater was collected during one month to yield 10 L influent. Portions of influent were filtered through 9 different types of filter packing and the effluents collected for analysis.
The influent reference and effluent samples were analysed using an iontrap LC/MS screening method using diazepam-D5 as an internal standard. The signal abundance 12 most relevant substances was chosen to evaluate the level of reduction by filtration. Based on these analyses, the optimal filter packing was determined.
In the effluent of the best performing filter packing, the abundance of 9 substances was reduced by 91,5-99,9%. The abundance for the other 3 substances was below detection limit.
Substances removed more >99%: atorvastatine, carbamazepine, clarithromycine, diclofenac, granisetron, midazolam, naproxen, propranolol and rocuronium. Substances removed between 91-99%: cefazolin, ephedrine and ropivacaine.
The optimal filter composition will be tested in practice in a test setup. In addition, cost effectiveness and sustainability compared to alternative waste collection methods will be evaluated.
