EAHP represents over 29,000 hospital pharmacists across 36 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 professionals.
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 of Germany 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
Despite numerous attempts to improve medication information, patients express a need for more information about their drug treatment after discharge from hospital. A consequence of missing information could be unintentional non-adherence or adverse drug events. In Denmark, the electronic Shared Medication Record (SMR) lists the patients’ current drug treatment, but further relevant patient requested information is needed to support patients.
A booklet called My Medication Plan was developed as a tool to assist patients in managing their medication treatment. The Design Thinking Framework was applied as a model for involving patient representatives in the development as co-designers.
Three patient representatives from Hospital Sønderjylland participated during two group sessions with the purpose of generating ideas and designs for the My Medication Plan. Brainstorming was applied as an idea generating technique, since it is easy to use and effective in generating ideas in a short time. The ideas from the first session were used as inspiration for six prototypes of the booklet, which were presented and discussed at the second session. The final edition of the My Medication Plan was prepared based on this input.
The patient representatives stressed a need for specific instructions about the drugs’ application, boxes to note over-the-counter medication, dietary supplements and herbal remedies, as well as appointments with healthcare professionals to be a part of My Medication Plan. Additionally, free-text space for notes and questions about medication was requested. A non-electronic tool was specifically preferred because patients would have something to look at and write in meanwhile discussion medication changes and appointments. Furthermore, it could also provide relatives the opportunity to seek information about agreements made. According to the patient representatives, the final tool should include a print of the SMR and predefined pages including a glossary of medical terms. The developed tool, My Medication Plan, contains the requested information in an interchangeable design with a print of the SMR and the predefined papers added into plastic sleeves.
After developing the My Medication Plan, the next step is to use and test the effect of using the tool in relation to a sector transition intervention conducted as a randomised controlled trial.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Françoise LONGTON, Olivia Polinard, Linda Mattar, Anna Pauels, Mireille Bourton, Michel Mattens
A thorough medication history at admission reduces medication errors. The presence of a clinical pharmacist in the preoperative clinic increases the number of inpatients who receive a standardized medication history by a pharmacist.
On admission, the adaptation of home medications to the hospital formulary can also be a source of error or delay. The fact that the patient is seen by a pharmacist prior to hospitalization makes it possible to anticipate drug substitutions and possible orders for non-formulary drugs.
Moreover, surgeons do not always have the possibility to prescribe medications taken at home upon admission, which results in a delayed availability of the medication. Thanks to this multidisciplinary project the continuity of treatment is assured.
During the preoperative consultation, a pharmacist takes a medication history and enters it into the computerized medical record, making it available for the anaesthetist.
Upon admission of the patient, the continuity of the medication is ensured by the pharmacy.
Indeed, during the admission, the nurse follows a procedure that informs the pharmacy of any medication changes since the preoperative consultation. Afterwards, the pharmacy encodes the treatment into the computerized intra-hospital prescription and delivers it to the department.
Before any drug administration, this treatment is signed by the doctor responsible for the patient.
Preoperative consultations had to be structured so that each patient was first seen by the pharmacist, second by a nurse and third by the anaesthetist.
Thus, the main obstacle was organizational and it was overcome through the centralized management of preoperative clinic appointments.
In 2020, 54% of patients admitted for surgery (elective or emergency surgeries) were seen in the preoperative clinic.
This is an example of good practice as it ensures a standardized medication history and admission management.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Maria Abrahamsen
The aim of the initiative was, among others, to study whether MH by a pharmaconomist in the emergency department has positive effects in other departments. Since the majority of hospitalised patients are admitted through the emergency department it is expected that changes related to admission procedures affect other departments in the cases where patients are hospitalised. In theory recording of MH should be easy, due to the use of Shared Medication Record (FMK). FMK is an updated electronic medication list including all prescriptions filled at pharmacies within the last 2 years. In reality, often neither FMK nor the recorded MH is correct. MH recorded by pharmaconomist or pharmacist is implemented in other emergency departments, but the effect in other hospital departments has yet to be documented.
At hospitalisation, part of the routine is to record the patient’s medicinal history. We implemented recording of medicinal history (MH) in the emergency department by a pharmaconomist instead of by a doctor.
The pharmaconomist was present at the emergency department weekdays during daytime to record the MH of newly admitted patients. When the pharmaconomists wasn’t present the doctor recorded the MH. To evaluate the effect in other departments, data registered by pharmaconomists at the department of geriatrics about medicinal changes, types of changes and number of patients with changes were used, combined with hospital data about the number of patients in the geriatric department at a given time. Data from 10 months before the initiative was compared with data from the 9 month test period.
At the department of geriatrics both the need for medicine changes due to inadequate MH and the number of patients with medicine changes related to inadequate MH was significantly reduced (p 0.05). The proportion of patients with changes was reduced from 43.7% to 36.9% and the number of changes per patient was reduced from 0.65 to 0.49. For both parameters the reduction is seen immediately after implementing MH by a pharmaconomist in the emergency department. The reduction has released time for nurses, doctors and pharmaconomists working outside the emergency department, though it isn’t possible to quantify the amount of released time.
Incorporation of a specialised professional such as a pharmaconomist early in a hospitalisation gives doctors, nurses and pharmaconomists working outside the emergency department extra time for other tasks. The effect of the initiative depends on the procedures for admissions since it requires that most patients are admitted through one department at the hospital.
