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
In intensive care patients, numerous drugs are continuously administered. Standardised concentrations and dose adjustment by infusion rate are recommended to minimise medication errors, e.g., by the EAHP Special Interest Group for investigating Medication Errors in Intensive Care Units. This principle is also followed more and more in German hospitals. However, there is a lack of a national standardised concentration list.
The joint working group aimed to develop and implement a nationwide standardised concentration list for continuously administered infusions in intensive care patients in German hospitals.
A joint working group of the German Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ADKA e.V.) and the German Interdisciplinary Association of Intensive and Emergency Care (DIVI e. V.) compiled a nationwide continuous infusion standard for intensive care patients. Based on a national survey conducted in 2021, a list of plausible, commonly used drugs and concentrations was compiled. Drugs and concentrations to be listed were further evaluated in a multi-stage process based on predefined criteria (e.g. volume sparing concentration, one concentration per drug [where applicable], preferring ready-to-use medication, operational considerations).
A joint working group of the German Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ADKA e.V.) and the German Interdisciplinary Association of Intensive and Emergency Care (DIVI e. V.) compiled a nationwide continuous infusion standard for intensive care patients. The national continuous infusion standard encompasses 41 drugs and 49 standard concentrations, recommended vehicle solutions and data on the physicochemical stability of the infusions during administration. Thirty-seven active substances are listed with one concentration, heparin with two concentrations, epinephrine and sufentanil with three concentrations, and norepinephrine with four.
Healthcare professionals in German intensive care units are encouraged to adopt this standardised concentration list to improve medication safety. Flowcharts provided by the working group will facilitate the implementation of the defined standard concentrations.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Douwe van der Meer, Peder Nygard
In our hospital 30% of the daily distributed medication for individual patients was not administered. Reasons for not administering were for example lack of need because of patients clinical performance, discontinuation of prescriptions or early discharge. Because of safety concerns, like mix-ups, our standard procedure was to discard all returned medication. This resulted in a waste of about 220.000 pills annually.
We reduced medicine waste by 90% by reusing returned medication from our medical wards. With this result we made an important step for our hospital to meet the national sustainability goals in the Dutch ‘Healthcare Green Deal (3.0)’.
Reusing returned medication brings multiple safety concerns. By performing a prospective risk analysis we identified three major risks: mix-ups, expired medication and accepting non-qualitative packages (like slightly opened blisters or incomplete labels). With these risks identified we redefined our distribution process on four key elements: 1) Every medication has a barcode on unit level and if not, is labelled by our team through duplicating the ‘Falsified Medicine Directive’-barcodes to small 2D barcode labels which includes expiration date. 2) All returned medication is checked by a pharmacy employee on major quality aspects. 3) Returned medication is placed in a separate ‘return-box’ in front of the original stock inside the distribution cabinet. 4) Expiration dates are checked more frequently and are checked upon distribution and administration through barcode scanning.
The new distribution process was implemented in all of our eight distribution cabinets and resulted in saving 90% of the returned medication; witch amount to 200.000 pills and 70.000 euro savings annually. On average we work with 6 employees daily, who need 15 minutes extra per person per day to process returned medication.
Our goal is to save all returned medication that meets our quality standards. 5% of the returns that are not reused are medicines not included in the assortments of the specific distribution cabinet, so extra logistic and administrative steps are needed to place them back in the pharmacy stock. We are exploring new ways to make this next step in reducing medication waste further.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Elisabetta Volpi, Giuseppa Lo Surdo, Mattia Lorenzini, Anna Carmignani, Debora Luccetti, Stefania Baratta, Mario Cossu, Maurizio Mangione, Pierantonio Furfori, Monica Baroni, Paolo Del Sarto, Stefania Biagini
This implementation was designed to provide a safe tool for the particular context of the operating room, in which prescription and administration are actions usually urgent and concomitant. The program suggests a rapid list of prescriptions standardized for adult patients (i.e. dose, diluent, bolus/drip) and allows to register any other drug or modify default information, respecting the rules for a clear prescription before registration.
Our aim was to demonstrate the possibility to validate this program and prove its functionality.
In 2019 a multidisciplinary group (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, computer scientists) created an electronic program dedicated to the Cardiac Operating Room of the Heart Hospital, Fondazione Monasterio (Italy), which allow the prompt registration of drug prescriptions and administrations. Furthermore this program guarantees traceability of the drugs administered by the nurses, in order to improve medication safety practice.
This program was created into the electronic prescribing system available in Fondazione Monasterio. The standardized prescriptions already in use in the operating room were reviewed by a pharmacist, consulting the information in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC), in the literature or by contacting the company that holds the MA. For each discrepancies identified a solution was proposed and shared with the working group, in order to validate a definitive list.
The prescriptions extracted by the IT Systems unit 6 months before and after the implementation of the new program were therefore analyzed.
A list of 182 standardized prescriptions was validated and reported in the program.
Among the 10,320 prescriptions made before the new program none had traceability of the drugs administered, while the 8,730 of the following period were complete and 99.6% of them fell within the standardized prescriptions, demonstrating the functionality and correct selection by the working group.
The development of a program for the computerized registration of prescriptions made during the surgery, which respond to the requirements of drug safety and traceability, represents an example of good practice.
We have implemented this tool in the paediatric population, with particular precautions due to the weight variability (i.e. dose/kg). The next step could be integration with further assessments (e.g., kidney function evaluation) and the transfer to other settings
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Elisabetta Volpi, Giuseppa Lo Surdo, Sara Tonazzini, Stefania Alduini, Maurizio Mangione, Umberto Paradossi, Monica Baroni, Sergio Berti, Stefania Biagini
Several data suggest that pharmacists and physician collaboration, direct pharmacist interaction with patients or caregivers through medication reconciliation and discharge counselling decreases the number of adverse drug events (ADEs) and plays an overall positive role in transitional care. Our aim is to demonstrate the constant necessity of pharmacist led medication reconciliation in order to maintain a high standard of care and safe medication use.
Medication reconciliation at hospital discharge is essential for the prevention of medication discrepancies and patient harm. Hospital pharmacists are recognised as one of main healthcare providers that can support the physicians in this activity.
Since 2016, the medication reconciliation process has been performed by physicians and clinical pharmacists before home discharge from the Heart Hospital, Fondazione Toscana G.Monsaterio in Italy.
We analysed the medication reconciliation activity performed in our hospital over time and we observed that the number of unintentional discrepancies was always around 20%.
A shared pre-discharge prescription review programme has been activated with all doctors, so when the final lists of drug prescriptions are ready, the pharmacist examines them and suggests improvements or corrections to the doctor before the discharge letter is delivered to patients. Among the unintentional discrepancy observed, the most frequent were omissions of chronic therapy, lack of information about suspension for low molecular weight heparin or antibiotics.
A strong collaboration between physicians and clinical pharmacists has been achieved as we shared the results of this improvement. The same activity has been required and extended to the paediatric ward where the demand of simple, clear and complete information is even more crucial given the particular inter-individual variability and fragility of this population.
We would like to improve the prescription review programme also at admission in order to minimise drug omissions and at transition between different wards or different hospitals with the aim of improving communication between health care settings.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
MARCELO DOMINGUEZ CANTERO, CARMEN MARIA DOMINGUEZ SANTANA, MARCELINO MORA CORTES, ESMERALDA RIOS SANCHEZ, JUAN MANUEL BORRERO RUBIO
Patients who withdraw medication from outpatient pharmacies in Spanish hospitals are provided with pharmaceutical care and pharmaceutical care stratification tools in specific outpatient pharmacy consultations. These patients are usually multi-pathological with multiple drug interactions, contraindications, and important adverse effects. Therefore, during the hospital admission of these outpatients, it was appropriate to provide continuous care from the hospital pharmacy. Before the implementation of the protocol, there was no specific and systematic follow-up of hospitalized outpatients.
Implementation of a protocol that provides pharmaceutical care to outpatients during hospitalization, ensuring continuity of care through the pharmacy service.
The main problem with the implementation was the real-time detection of hospitalized outpatients. The development of a software tool to facilitate the location of patients provided an impetus for the implementation of the project. The computer tool selected patients who met the inclusion criteria (hospitalized outpatients with medication withdrawal in the outpatient unit in the last two months). Patients treated with erythropoietin and colony stimulants were excluded.
Seventy-nine patients were included in the study between April and September 2023; 62.1% were male. Main pathologies included 41.9% oncohaematologic diseases, 18.9% human immunodeficiency virus, and 17.7% immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
The reason for admission was related to the pathology for which outpatient medication was withdrawn in 27 patients (34.2%), and six patients (7.6 %) were admitted due to an AE of the medication withdrawn in outpatients. Pharmaceutical interventions (PI) were performed in 21.5% of the patients reviewed, and 76.5% were accepted. PI reasons included discontinuation of treatment (64.7 %), modification (17.7 %), initiation (11.8 %) and monitoring (5.9 %).
With our protocol, we want to show that outpatients within the pool of patients admitted to a hospital are a priority target group. For these patients, the hospital pharmacist can improve treatment during hospitalization with a high degree of pharmaceutical intervention.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Almudena Ribed, Alvaro Gimenez-Manzorro, Beatriz Torroba-Sanz, Ana De Lorenzo-Pinto, Maite Portas-Gonzalez, Maria Dolores Ginel-Feito, Pilar Cabrerizo-Torrente, Maria Luisa Martin-Barbero, Ana Herranz-Alonso, Javier Hortal-Iglesias, María Sanjurjo-Saez
There is a high prevalence of medication errors in the perioperative setting. Health organizations highlight the need for effective practices to ensure safe medication use. A group of pharmacists, surgeons, anaesthesiologists, nurses, and IT technicians coordinated by the management was formed in 2020. Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) of the perioperative use of drugs was performed in 2021. The group detected up to 25 failure modes and conducted a bibliographic review to gather and prioritise the implementation of safety practices.
We re-engineered the process of medication use in the perioperative setting, from pre-admission to discharge, and implemented safety practices to improve safe medication use in the daily practice.
Obstacles were overcome as a result of the multidisciplinary teamwork, management support and the safety culture existing in our hospital. In addition, we listened to health professionals’ opinions, provided monthly information sessions in the Anaesthesia and Pharmacist Department in 2022 and disseminated information through the hospital website.
Eight safety practices were implemented in daily practice:
1.Eight safety practices were implemented in daily practice:
1. Implementation of automated dispensing cabinets.
2. Identification and recommendations for high risk drugs.
3. Standardisation of anaesthesia and difficult airway trolleys.
4. Preparation of general anaesthesia trays with ready to administer drugs.
5. Design, development, and implementation of a one-step computerised provider order entry (CPOE) in the operating room, with bar code administration technology.
6. Implementation of a pharmaceutical care programme for surgical patients based on medication reconciliation in all transitions of care.
7. Implementation of new alerts in the clinical decision support system linked to the CPOE to improve pain, anticoagulation, and antibiotic management in the surgical patient during follow-up.
8. Development of new protocols for perioperative management of chronic medications, anticoagulation, diabetes, and antibiotic prophylaxis in the surgical setting.
The new medication-use process describes a practical and real approach to promote perioperative patient safety in the daily practice. Transfer into other centres is achievable by motivating healthcare professionals, engaging in safety culture and creating multidisciplinary alliances. There is a need to assess the impact and evaluate these safety practices to ensure ongoing improvement.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Laura Doménech Moral, Raquel López Martínez, Maria Eugenia Palacio Lacambra, Emili Vallvé Alcon, Ángel Arévalo Bernabé, María Guerra González, Maria Queralt Gorgas Torner
At PS Vall d’Hebron, one of our strategic objectives is to enhance the patient safety culture internally and externally within PS.
Establishment of a core safety team within the Pharmacy Service (PS) with representatives from various areas and positions, along with established activities and indicators: the Safety Team.
By organising internal meetings of the Safety team to manage, lead, and plan activities related to medication safety. These activities include:
Advising on and/or managing medication safety incidents reported to the Patient Safety Incident Notification System of Catalonia (SNiSP) Vall d’Hebron.
Conducting biweekly “5 minutes of safety” meetings between pharmacy technicians and a member of the Safety team in the General, Maternal-Infant, Trauma, Outpatient, and Oncology-Haematology areas. In each meeting, the minutes from the previous one are reviewed to report on agreements and progress related to the topics discussed. Incidents reported to SNiSP related to medication dispensing and logistics are discussed, and there is an open discussion for technicians to share safety issues, questions, and medication-related incidents. These situations (reported incidents and those detected by technicians) are collectively analysed to propose prevention measures. Minutes of each meeting are documented and made available in a shared resource.
Weekly “safety pearls” presentations where sentinel medication incidents are presented, along with root cause analysis, by a representative of the Safety team. Situations that have led to medication incidents/errors in prescription and treatment validation are also discussed, along with proposed prevention measures by other PS members.
Conducting sessions related to safety during PS Sessions to present the actions taken by the safety core team and its collaboration with the Hospital’s Error Prevention Subcommittee.
More than 100 medication incidents reported to SNiSP have been managed.
Over 50 meetings with PS technicians, resulting in more than 45 improvement actions derived from notifications and detected issues, such as creating infographics for proper medication identification (everolimus, vitamin D), improving the urgent medication dispensing process without a prescription, or enhancing the management of “off-label” medications.
Around 20 safety pearls involving all pharmacists, leading to the creation of protocols, default guidelines, and updates to prescription and administration advice in the prescription programme.
Two annual patient safety-related sessions.
Continuing to enhance the safety culture through sessions and meetings involving various stakeholders, implementing an online medication error prevention course, and expanding the team.
Production and Compounding
Timea Botházi, Lone Madsen
The purpose was to find data for an increased microbiological shelf-life of preparations of cytotoxic agents in infusion bags combined with medical devices. The aim was to increase microbiological shelf-life from 24 hours to 7 days. Existing data were studied to find evidence to support the prolonged shelf-life.
The purpose was to find data for an increased microbiological shelf life of preparations of cytotoxic agents in infusion bags combined with medical devices. The aim was to increase microbiological shelf life from 24 hours to 7 days. Existing data was studied to find evidence to support the prolonged shelf life.
A team from the production and quality assurance departments worked together on writing a report that could provide the rationale for the change of shelf-life.
We collected data from
– supplier qualification of the medical devices
– aseptic process simulations (APS)
– process validations
Data were evaluated and risk assessment was performed.
Six medical devices were included.
All suppliers were qualified as low risk.
APS for the specific production process showed no growth.
Process validation data for two types of medical devices showed no concern regarding sterility of preparations.
The increase of shelf life was accepted. First product was Blincyto® in infusion bag with Take Set Swan-Lock ® with shelf life increased to 4 days. Patients now visit the oncology clinic only twice a week instead of daily thus saving time and transportation.
The result means that new product implementation is quick because the only things to evaluate are the stability of the substance and the compatibility of this with materials in contact with it.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Margaux DUFOSSE, Claire ANDREJAK, Abir PETIT
By May 2022, we learned about the sale discontinuation of oxygen humidifiers from one of the two manufacturers in our country, due to the constraints of MDR 2017/745. The second manufacturer restricts its products to hospitals with marketing partnerships. In our hospital, oxygen humidifiers are used regardless of the oxygenation medical device (nasal cannulas, masks, tubes or tracheotomy tube) or oxygen flow rate. We had to define indications and prescriptions to control consumption in our hospital.
To promote good use of oxygen humidifiers and control our consumption in a context of shortage we have drawn up a scientific explanatory document, a procedure and a prescription support.
We suppressed services’ allocations for humidifiers, to encourage prescription via the Electronic Patient Record. We set up a working group, including pharmacists, resuscitators, pulmonologists and nurses, to write a good use sheet, underlining high-priority medical indications taking account of scientific literature and respiratory medicine learned societies’ recommendations. To assess its effectiveness, we compared humidifiers’ consumption before and after we set it up and evaluate prescriptions’ number and conformity for the first 4 months, from May to September 2022.
The group restricted indications to paediatric patients, patients with tracheotomy and patients with oxygen flow rates above 5L/min and upper respiratory tract lesions such as nose bleeding, nasal discharge congestion, or nasal mucosa’s irritation or lesions. We wrote the good use sheet, mentioning the circuit’s montage and conditions for dispensing humidifiers. Before the new procedure, the mean consumption was 1,415 units per month, versus 39 per month from June. Regarding prescriptions’ conformity, 12 (8.7%) out of 138 were denied: six patients on ambient air, four with nasal cannula, one without any severity criteria, a not nominative prescription.
This collaborative and multidisciplinary work enabled a change in practices. Supply difficulties, initially seen as challenging, are a great opportunity to promote good use, and secure patient care. Although they have now been resolved, with a new supplier, we maintain our measures to ensure patients’ security and well-being.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
IGNASI SACANELLA ANGLÈS, MARTA MARTIN MARQUÉS, HELENA SUÑER BARRIGA, DAVID PASCUAL CARBONELL, PILAR LÓPEZ BROSETA, JÚLIA BODEGA AZUARA, MARÍA VUELTA ARCE, Mª ÁNGELES ROCH VENTURA, ISABEL PLO SECO, ERIKA ESTEVE PITARCH, ANTONIO GARCÍA MOLINA, SÒNIA JORNET MONTAÑA, CARLA DAIANA CIUCIU, SILVIA CONDE GINER, LAURA CANADELL VILARRASA
Drug dosages and treatment algorithms in paediatric emergencies must be precise and unambiguous to ensure the safety and well-being of patients. Therefore, the introduction of electronic prescription systems in the Paediatric Emergency Room (PER) has become essential to assist clinical staff in prescribing, preparing, and administering the most commonly used drugs.
Design and implementation of pharmacological cards as a supporting tool to standardise and streamline the dosages, preparation, and administration of the most frequently used drugs in paediatric emergencies, ensuring a prompt and safe response.
Pharmacological cards were developed for paediatric emergencies, including scenarios such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), seizures, sepsis, hypoglycaemia, anaphylaxis, and respiratory emergencies. These cards included the most commonly prescribed drugs, with input and agreement from paediatricians.
The files were organised based on weight categories (3.5-60 kg) and considered the age range of patients (0-15 years). Information collected included the active ingredient, commercial name and presentation, dose per kilogramme, total dosage, dose (expressed as volume for administration), maximum allowable dose, and administration technique. Certain specific conditions were highlighted in colour.
Both medical and nursing staff underwent training in the utilisation of these tools. An evaluation of the protocols was conducted 12 months after their implementation.
We developed a total of 21 pharmacological cards, categorised by weight range, encompassing 33 drugs commonly used in paediatric emergencies.
The pharmacological cards were designed in a tabular format, which included the following information: active principle (highlighted in black), commercial name (in red), drug concentration (in blue), standardised dose (in g, mg, mcg, ml, mEq) per kilogramme, total dosage, total volume for administration, maximum allowable dose, route of administration, and administration technique. Additionally, we used background colours to highlight specific situations, such as red for CPR, black for intravenous administration, green for intramuscular routes, and purple for intranasal administration.
During the 12-month evaluation period, we did not encounter any medication-related errors.
The development of pharmacological cards has helped to standardise practices and simplify the prescription, preparation, and administration of commonly used drugs in paediatric emergency situations. The protocolisation and implementation of this tool have enhanced drug safety in emergency scenarios by reducing human errors and minimising medication-related harm.
