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
Ángel Guillermo Arévalo Bernabé, Pilar Lalueza Broto, Jordi Serracanta Doménech, Jacinto Caparrós Baena, José Manuel Collado Delfa, Jordi Aguilera Sáez, Romy Rossich Verdés, Pablo Sánchez Sancho, Juan Carlos Juárez Giménez, Maria Queralt Gorgas Torné
The burns unit of a third-level hospital includes a patient’s great heterogeneity depending on his population group and his clinical condition (extension, degree and depth of his burns, etiological agent of the burns and associated comorbidities), which makes the managing of these patients complex and they need multidisciplinary solutions. In addition, extensive burns provoke physiopatological alterations that involve changes in the pharmacokinetical and the pharmacodynamical modelling of some drugs. The knowledge that the pharmacist has about the changes that take place in vascular dynamics, the clearance and the distribution volume of the drugs, and the degree of union from these to plasmatic proteins, makes his active participation in the care of the burns patient, and in the optimisation of his pharmacotherapeutic plan, very interesting.
The integration of the pharmacist into a multidisciplinary group of assistance to the burns patient constituted as the Managing Committee of Cases and was integrated by plastic surgery, intensive medicine, intensive paediatric medicine, preventive medicine, infectious diseases, psychiatry, psychology, social work and infirmary, as well as pharmacy.
A protocol was devised that standardises and systematises the review of the pharmacotherapeutic plan of all patients in the burns unit, including burn critical and paediatric. Also, there is included a model of record and codificate of pharmaceutical interventions. The multidisciplinary group meets weekly and every patient is analysed from all clinical points of view, the pharmacist intervening in relation to the pharmacotherapeutic and nutritional plan.
The active integration of the pharmacist has been achieved in the clinical group of assistance to the burns patient. In addition, there has been created a collaborative attitude that has benefited joint projects of investigation. The degree of acceptance of the offers of modification that the pharmacist realises is 90%.
The following step must be, depending on the obtained results, to establish improvement assistance measures, including the accomplishment of protocols and the development of investigation projects that help to generate knowledge about the use of some drugs in burns patients, such as immunoglobulin or proteolitic enzymes for the extraction of bed sores.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Ana Soares, Armando Alcobia
Several clinical practice guidelines for LC recommend that multidisciplinary teams should be used to plan patients’ treatment. The evolution of thoracic oncology, namely the increasing knowledge of the diverse histologic and molecular phenotypes in non-small cell LC, has been driven to more complex treatment algorithms in recent years. This complexity increases the need for a multidisciplinary approach in therapeutic decision-making, which must be individualised and based on the best information available. The pharmacist’s inclusion in the multidisciplinary team is essential and was formerly proposed by the Pneumology Director to the Hospital Administration Board.
A hospital pharmacist is a permanent member of the lung cancer (LC) multidisciplinary team, which has met weekly since January 2016, to plan the management and treatment of LC patients in our hospital. The pharmacist brings updated information about the efficacy and safety of drug treatments, its cost-effectiveness and its availability. The pharmacist improves communication with the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee.
The multidisciplinary team meets weekly to discuss the diagnosis and treatment options of LC patients, and includes a dedicated group of professionals: pulmonary oncologists, a thoracic surgeon, a radiation oncologist, a radiologist, a pathologist, a nuclear medicine specialist, a hospital pharmacist, a palliative care physician and an oncology nurse.
About 240 cases, corresponding to 200 patients were discussed per year. An average of 110 solicitations to the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee were made. The multidisciplinary team grants a systematic approach to diagnosis and therapeutics, in compliance with evidence-based guidelines, improves communication and coordination between professionals and short waiting times for the patient.
The next step is to systematise real-world data collecting, from the patients treated, to better understanding the effectiveness of treatment options and the real impact of the multidisciplinary team in patient outcome, ideally, extending it onto a national level.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Emma Ramos Santana, Enrique Tevar Alfonso, Maria Jose Castillos Mendez, Maria Luz Padilla Salazar, Lucy Abella Vazquez, Jesus Ode Febles, Marcelino Hayek Peraza, Javier Merino Alonso
The implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship program (AMS) is very important, but it has to be accompanied by personal resources. It is therefore necessary to effectively use the time spent in the AMS.
We have worked with the Information Technology Service to develop an “Intelligent Antimicrobial Screening Program” (IASP).
Using the information available in Electronic Health Record (EHR) and in pharmacy and microbiology applications we have developed a computer tool that analyze hundreds of situations through pre-established conditions
Currently the system analyzes more than 40 conditions related to the correct use of antimicrobials based on antibiotic characteristics, patient situation and microbiological data.
Some of the most relevant conditions are:
●Antibiotic prescribed more than 6 days.
●Patient with parenteral antibiotic for more than 3 days and with other oral medicines.
●Antibiotic that must be adjusted in patients with renal impairment prescribed in patients with glomerular filtration rate (GFR)65 years old, GFR5 days prescribed or other nephrotoxic prescribed.
●Patients with linezolid and thrombocytopenia or anemia or without an hemogram in the last week.
●Patients with daptomicyn and high creatininkinase (CK) or without a recent determination.
This software allows to collect information contained in different systems and displays it in an organized view to the user. This makes it an easily system that can be exported to other hospitals.
Our next objective is to consult the microbiological information. Therefore the system will be able to recommend about the optimal antimicrobial treatment, detecting situations in which the treatment can be de-escalated or alerting in case of resistance.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Ulrike Guger-Halper
The pharmacy of the hospital supplies four hospitals with cytotoxic infusions. In the past it was found that the integration of a pharmacist in the oncology team brings benefits.
Integration of a pharmacist in the oncology team
The aim was to evaluate the participation of a pharmacist in the multidisciplinary oncology team. The team consists of the clinical pharmacist, medical oncologists, residents, oncology nurses, dieticians, medical documentation assistent and a clinical psychologist.
Data were collected from May 2014 to September 2015.
All chemotherapy protocols were electronically prescribed in CATO® (computer aided therapy for oncology) and included cytotoxic drugs and concomitant medications.
In addition to production in the cytostatic unit the pharmacist participated in the daily morning meetings, the two-week tumor boards and bimonthly team meetings.
Pharmacist interventions (PI) took place during the meetings and were also communicated by phone and mails.
3335 cycles of chemotherapies were prescribed and 914 interventions were recorded.
CATO®-related PI (33,3%) were categorized in: literature research (4,7%), chemotherapy protocols (3,2%), dose selection (16,7%), treatment duration (1,4%), application/infusion time (0,9%) and others (6,4%).
Not CATO®-Related PI (66,7%) were categorized in: logistics (24,2%), patient-related (26%), drug-related (16,5%)
Under pharmaceutical participation: 15 guidelines, 1 abstract for a poster presentation, 27 work tools, 2 workshops, 2 publications, 1 lecture, 15 staff trainings, wipe samples in preparation
In this observational study we demonstrated the significant role of the clinical pharmacist as a part of the multidisciplinary oncology team. The supply by a pharmacist means to optimize treatment protocols and procedures and improving patient safety.
Medication errors occur despite electronic prescription of standardized protocols. Clinical pharmacists with special experience in oncology play an important role to identify errors in oncology.
A plausibility check by a pharmacist is still needed.
References: Sessions J. K. et al., Role of Oncology Clinical Pharmacists in Light of the Oncology Workforce Study, J Oncol Pract. 2010 Sep; 6(5): 270–272.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
S. IBAÑEZ GARCIA, C.G. RODRIGUEZ-GONZALEZ, A. GIMENEZ-MANZORRO, E. CHAMORRO DE VEGA, R. COLLADO-BORELL, E. LOBATO-MATILLA, A. DE LORENZO-PINTO, M. TOVAR-POZO, A. HERRANZ-ALONSO, M. SANJURJO-SAEZ
CHC affects approximately 3% of the world’s population. The development of well tolerated and effective AADs has changed the therapeutic landscape. These therapies have a high efficacy with a good safety profile. Numerous challenges in terms of patient education, monitoring, medication errors, drug interactions and adherence exist. Our National Health System launched a strategy plan for proper CHC management in April 2015, establishing, among other things, measures to optimise AAD use.
We have developed a pharmaceutical care programme.
I. The following protocols were defined:
– A case selection and treatment guideline, following the recommendations from health authorities.
– A protocol for the management of drug interactions.
– A protocol with recommended dosages and administration techniques.
– A protocol with potential adverse drug events and recommendations about how to prevent and manage them.
– A protocol about clinical interview to ensure patient literacy and co-responsability.
– Patients information leaflets.
II. The pharmacy department was provided with:
– 3 full time pharmacists.
– 2 patient information offices.
– a queue management system.
III. Appointment scheduling:
Pharmacy visits were scheduled after the hepatologist/infectious disease specialist appointments every 28 days.
IV. The clinical interviews were documented in the electronic health record.
A multidisciplinary team was formed with two hepatologists, one infectious disease specialist, three clinical pharmacists and one nurse to:
– Address the key points associated with the safe and efficient use of AADs.
– Create a useful clinical guideline.
– Identify staffing and logistics needs.
No of patients included in the programme: 674
No of initial visits: 674
No of follow-up visits: 1750
No of patients attended/day: 19.9
No (%) adherent patients at the end of treatment: 412/412 (100%)
No of pharmacist interventions: 195
No (%) pharmacist interventions accepted: 194 (99%)
Average waiting time to be attended by the pharmacist: 15 min
No of queries made to the hospital pharmacist: 84
No of adverse drug events reported to the pharmacovigilance centre: 31
Cost savings (€): 121 194
This initiative provides a set of recommendations regarding CHC management and a support guide to standardise and guarantee high quality pharmaceutical care.
The next step is to develop pharmaceutical care programmes for the management of other pathologies following the same methodology that we have used for this initiative.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
There was a previous collaboration between the pharmacy and medical oncology but with many problems due to the physical separation between the two units. There was a lack of knowledge of the needs of both services.
To provide integral cancer care to the patients. We prepare the standard or investigational treatments the day of analysis and medical consultation. In the pharmacy consultation, we provide information and training to patients and their caregivers about the use of antineoplastic, evaluate their polytherapy and complementary and alternative therapy, drug interactions, conciliation, dispense doses and adjusted to help improve treatment and adherence and tolerance amounts.
Change of hospital, creation of new onco-hematology unit(2003), good feedback, and integration in clinical sessions.
The pharmacist reviews each chemotherapy order in relation to all known factors concerning the patient. If questions arise, the physician originating the order is contacted. Orders are verified with a protocol, standard regimen or standard dosing guidelines. The oncology pharmacist contributed to the design of chemotherapy protocols by electronic prescribing program (Farmis_Oncofarm®) and supportive care protocols. Activity (2013):22.770 preparations of intravenous chemotherapy, 9.651 patients consulting pharmacy. Reusing cytostatics in a centralized pharmacy preparation unit (Nplate®saving:129.910€(31.7%)), the preparation of parenteral mixtures at the pharmacy department minimises costs compared to preparation on wards (estimated saving 2.500.000€).The unit is also actively engaged in clinical trials (166 trials) and other research projects (pharmacogenetics and adherence with electronic monitoring system) with several publications (∑IF=84). It is a reference model clinical and teaching, oncology pharmacy unit is a preceptor to residents, staffs of other hospitals. Realisation of the annual attendance course. Unit Growth: 2 oncology pharmacist(BCOP),1 haematology pharmacist (BCOP),1 paediatric pharmacist, 3 nurses,1 technician and 1 investigator. Implantation of Standard UNE 179003 on Risk Management for Patient and ISO9001. 0.5 % errors and avoiding incidents. High average patient satisfaction(93%).
Allow direct patient interaction through a econsultation platform and twitter. A staff preceptorship and traceability system for the preparation and administration(barcode) implement.
