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
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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
The number of patients treated with autologous eye drops has increased significantly in recent years, which has led to the need to create an intra-hospital circuit to ensure the traceability of samples throughout the extraction, processing and dispensing process.
Create a circuit to ensure traceability of the patient’s plasma at all times, thus avoiding any confusion.
In order to avoid the transport of samples by patients and consequently the loss of samples or possible errors, the following circuit was developed:
– The extraction and centrifugation of the patient’s blood is agreed with the Biochemistry Service, the orderly is in charge of taking it to the pharmacotechnics laboratory, in the Pharmacy Service, where the time of delivery will be noted.
– If the plasma arrives before 12:00 noon, the patient will be called late in the morning for dispensing. If the delivery is later, it will be scheduled for the following day.
– The eye drops are then prepared.
– Finally, they are dispensed directly from the laboratory by the pharmacists or by the technicians trained for this purpose, always under the supervision of the pharmacist responsible for the area. Traceability is maintained throughout the entire process.
To make everything possible, several training meetings had to be held with Bioquimica.
Since the implementation of this circuit at the beginning of 2023, 166 batches of autologous eye drops have been produced for 72 patients, with only one error recorded, where a plasma that was not correctly identified was delivered and discarded.
In addition, the waiting time for dispensing the preparation was reduced by 33%, from 30 minutes to less than 10 minutes, thus achieving greater patient satisfaction.
The application of this circuit prevents samples from being transported by the patient, avoiding any type of accident, as well as ensuring the correct traceability of the samples. On the other hand, patient waiting times are reduced by dispensing samples directly from the laboratory area, thus avoiding waiting times for consultations.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Ana Concepción Sánchez Cerviño, Jorge Coca Crespo, Maria Rivera Ruiz, Juan Ignacio Alcaraz López, Adrián López Fernández, Elena Pérez García, Bárbara Ubeda Ruiz, Amelia Sánchez Guerrero
Sequential therapy, or switch therapy, consists of an early conversion from intravenous to oral (PO) treatment, without compromising the therapeutic effectiveness. In advantage, PO in selected cases, avoids intravenous associated risks, it is more comfortable to patients and represents an important economic saving.
The aim of the GPI was to implement a daily program that allows the pharmacist to identify the patients that would benefit from the AST.
Implementation of a program of antibiotic sequential therapy (AST) and evaluate the outcome of the pharmaceutical recommendations carried out in a third-level hospital.
A database was created to select the active antibiotic prescriptions with more than 72 hours duration, susceptible to AST: metronidazole, clindamycin, levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and linezolid.
Patients clinical criteria for initiating AST were established as:
• Temperature ≤ 37 ºC
• Systolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg
• Heart rate < 100 bpm
• Respiratory rate < 24 rpm
• Oxygen saturation ≥ 90%
• Capacity for oral intake
Once the patients were identified, the pharmacist communicated the recommendation to the doctor in charge, and worked together to make a final decision.
Due to the high burden of care, the follow-up of patients who could not be substituted to PO in the first 72 hours was lost.
From October 2022 to March 2023, 453 patients on intravenous antibiotic treatment were reviewed. The mean age was 65.7 ± 20.9, and 57.4% of the patients were men.
47 patients were selected as they met the established criteria.
All the antibiotics presented a similar percentage of recommendation with a mean of 19.2% ± 6.3. Of this percentage, 59.6% of the patients were switched to oral antibiotics. Stands out linezolid, with a 83.3% of acceptance.
Lower respiratory tract infections were the most prevalent, representing 51.6% of the total. However, only 11 patients (5.1%) were suggested for AST due to the frequent use of nasal spectacles or oxygen therapy, a criterion that excludes AST
The high number of accepted recommendations shows the importance of implementing an AST programme in order to optimize antimicrobial treatment, and this initiative could be easily implemented to all Pharmacy Services.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
STEFANIE HEHENBERGER, IRENE LAGOJA, SANDRA BIELITZ-HOLZER
Creation of a stoma means change in secretion, intestinal motility and absorption. Depending on localisation, this has also consequences for the absorption of drugs or certain drug forms. Data on absorption of drugs in ostomy patients are rare, but as most drugs are absorbed in the small intestine, ileostomy patients may more likely experience difficulty in absorbing and, therefore, gaining maximum benefit from oral medications.
As part of a project, it was evaluated whether and which drug-related problems (DRPs) occur in stoma patients and, if so, measures for optimising drug therapy were proposed.
Relevant drug data (tmax, site of absorption, etc.) were collected and systematised in tabular form and the need for further pharmaceutical interventions was surveyed.
Over a period of 21 weeks, medication of Ileostomy patients (new created and pre-existing) hospitalised in various wards was screened.
A Level 3 medication analysis was performed, and the medication was then analysed with regard to possible stoma-specific DRPs.
All DRPs and pharmaceutical interventions were categorised and documented, and the identified DRPs brought to the attention of the patient’s medical team for review/ discussion in written form and/or personally.
Seventy-nine DRPs were identified in 15 medication reviews, of which 49 (62%) were classified as stoma associated DRPs. The pharmaceutical interventions were categorised, most common recommendations were monitoring (18) and change of the medication form (15). Acceptance of the interventions was also recorded (82%). Since a HOS (High output stoma) occurred frequently, an escalation scheme for the therapy of liquid stool and/or stool volume ≥1500ml/day was established. Finally, an interdisciplinary cooperation taking into account the complex patient factors could successfully be established.
Due to these results it can be assumed that ileostomy patients benefit greatly from pharmaceutical interventions, and that clinical-pharmaceutical care of ileostomy patients contributes to the drug therapy safety of this patient group and is therefore now being continued and incorporated into everyday clinical practice. In addition, further projects such as the creation of a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the interdisciplinary care of ileostomy patients are in progress.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Giulia CANCELLIERI, Piera POLIDORI
Hospital pharmacist provides all management of investigational medical product(IMP), i.e. its conservation, distribution, return and destruction. However, each clinical trial involves different methods of managing the drug: this can mislead the pharmacist who has to manage multiple trials at the same time. With the aim of minimizing errors that may arise from the simultaneous management of different clinical trials, we have developed a method to classify clinical protocols by “risk index”.
With the aim of minimizing errors resulting from management of clinical trials in hospital pharmacy, we have developed a method to classify experimental protocols into low-moderate-high risk(risk index). For each of these categories, standard procedures were then outlined in order to minimize the occurrence of any errors.
In order to determine risk index(ρ) we have identified all risks related to IMP’s management: pharmacological risk(φ), dependent on pharmacological characteristics of IMP; technological risk(α), if drug should be compounding; risk related to number of patients enrolled(np); risk inherent to the protocol(π), i.e. whether protocol involves placebo, or randomization, etc. These risks were then related through the formula created by us, ρ=φ+(α*np)+π: protocols are defined low-risk if ρ<50, moderate-risk if 51<ρ151. For each risk index, standard procedures were outlined in order to minimize risks, i.e.(for high-risk) inclusion of at least four pharmacists in “Delegation of Responsibilities Log”; scheduling monthly meetings with trial’s Monitor; dispensing of IMP with supervision by at least two pharmacists; etc.
We applied this method to 45 active trials in our hospital. For 3/45(6,7%) protocols, φ>75 because IMPs are carcinogenic; instead, 26/45(57,8%) protocols, involve IMP’s compounding; finally 29/45(64,4%) protocols are randomized and 14/29(48,3%) of these involve use of placebo. By applying aforementioned formula, we found that 3/45(6,7%) protocols are low-risk, 32/45(71,1%) moderate-risk, 10/45(22,2%) high-risk. For these 10, standard procedures were applied, to improve the safety of patients enrolled in a clinical trial.
We promote use of this method in other clinical centers, because we believe it can be a valid tool for risk minimization. Finally, we hope that we will receive numerous feedback from these centers to further improve the proposed method.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Adrian Viudez-Martinez, Ana Ramirez-Lopez, Javier Lopez-Nieto, Geronima Riera, Eduardo Climent-Grana
Medication errors harm at least 1.5 million people every year. According to the Institute for Safe Medication Practice (ISMP), ongoing errors with oral methotrexate (MTX) for non-oncologic use suggest that more needs to be done to reduce the risk of patient harm, especially considering its potentially severe side effects.
Identification and prevention of MTX-related medication errors for non-oncologic use by medication reconciliation at hospital admission. Analysis of errors’ type prevalence were also performed.
Design: prospective cohort performed in a tertiary hospital from September 2021 to April 2023.
Inclusion criteria: Inpatients with weekly methotrexate for non-oncologic use.
Intervention applied: medication reconciliation comparing inpatient’s e-prescription, clinical record, outpatient medication history and pharmacist-driven interview.
Data analysed: demographic data (age, sex, admission cause) treatment-related data (indication, methotrexate and folic acid posology, administration route, day of the week).
Out of 79 admission episodes (53.1 % men, median age: 72 years (range: 18-96 years), 63 (80% )were urgent.
Most patients had been prescribed methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis (n=56), but also for polyarthritis (n=9), psoriatic arthritis (n=8), pulmonary sarcoidosis (n=2), pemphigus (n=1), spondylarthritis (n=1) and Still syndrome (n=1).
Methotrexate doses’ frequency were: 15 mg (28.9%), 10 mg (27.6%), 20 mg (11.9%), 7.5 mg (9.2%), 25 mg (7.9%), 12.5 mg (6.6%), 17.5 mg (5.3%) and 5 mg (2.6%).
Medication errors were identified and prevented in 38 out of the 77 episodes recorded (49.4%). There were classified as follows: dose (38.5%), day (17.9%), dose and day (17.9%), dose and administration route (10.3%), omission (10.3%), administration route (2.6%) and lack of indication (2.6%).
Folic acid doses’ frequency was: 10 mg the day after MTX (47%), 5 mg the day after MTX (28%), 5 mg daily except the same day as MTX (17%), 15 mg the day after MTX (8%).
Medication errors were identified and prevented in 51 out of the 77 episodes recorded (66.2%). There were classified as follows: omission (38.8%), day (33.3%), day and dose (16.7%), dose (9.3%) and drug (1.9%).
Performing medication reconciliation in every admission, measuring its potential benefits using validated tools for clinical pharmacists’ intervention assessment, such as the CLEO tool, which can, ultimately, serve as preamble to objectively measure the pharmacists’ impact in healthcare efficiency and patients’ safety.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Carine Schuurmans
• The use of gloves in medication administration can vary depending on several factors, including the specific healthcare hygienic policies, local guidelines, and the type of medication being administered. There is no uniform practice across all of Europe.
• According to the Dutch guideline on administration of parenteral medication disposable gloves are traditionally used during parenteral medication administration.
• Most parenteral medications do not pose a significant hazardous risk and the administration of ready to use preparations does not pose a significant infection risk.
• Re-evaluation of the Dutch guideline on administration of parenteral medication from a sustainability point of view.
• Reducing unnecessary glove usage in medication administration.
• Re-evaluating the need for disposable gloves from both an infection prevention and medication hazard point of view.
• Discussion with experts and users.
• Implementation of findings both in the inpatient and outpatient departments.
• Overall growing attention to correct glove usage.
• Reduction of use of disposable gloves during parenteral medication administration and other medical procedures
• CO2-, land occupation and water reduction by respectively 6000 CO2 eq, 600m2, 300m3 and 3500 €/month
• Revision of the Dutch guidelines on administration of parenteral medication
Production and Compounding
Eleonora Castellana, Simonetta Felloni, Matilde Scaldaferri, Giuseppina Bonfante, Elena Maggiora, Francesco Cresi, Maria Francesca Campagnoli, Alessandra Coscia, Maria Rachele Chiappetta, Francesco Cattel
The purpose was to provide the Neonatal-Intensive-Care-Unit (NICU) with ready-to-use bags that could improve patient safety by minimizing procedural incidents and maximize resource efficiency while providing clinically appropriate nutrition for the single PP.
Seven standard bags (SSB), ready-to-use, have been formulated and developed for parenteral nutrition (PN) in preterm patients (PP). An assisted prescribing software was developed for selecting the most appropriate standard bags (SB).
The project was carried out in collaboration between pharmacists, nurses and neonatologist of NICU.
The composition of the SB was identified from the retrospective analysis of the types of individualized bags requested from the Pharmacy and from the analysis of the recommended ESPGHAN-Paediatric-Parenteral-Nutrition-2018 contributions.
SSB ready-to-use were identified:
The bags have been produced by an industrial partner according to Good Manufacturing Practice-Annex 1. The shelf life is 90 days.
The SSB were implemented successfully on the PP. Starting from 2021, approximately 250 bags/month have been used, with a reduction in individual preparations by the Pharmacy of approximately 80%.
This approach showed results in terms of clinical results and economic outcomes. The computer program guided the physician to the most appropriate standardized solution.
Early and timely administration of ready-to-use PN showed reduced weight loss and a shorter duration of PN than individualized bags (21 vs 25 days).
The project described has shown benefits including improved nutrient supply, fewer prescribing and administration errors, lower risk of infection, cost sav-ings, ready availability of the bags 24/7 and safe and effective supply of SB. This project will be strengthened in our hospital.
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.
