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.
Production and Compounding
Leila Costa, Rui Marques, Ana Castro, João Paulo Cruz
Cytotoxic medicines are drugs used mainly in the treatment of neoplasms. Their preparation is a key activity of Hospital Pharmacy, carried out in a Class II Type B2 Vertical Flow Chamber (VFC). With the emergence of new cytotoxic drugs, the increase in the number of patients (2100 in 2010 to 3168 in 2021), and preparations (from 30000 in 2010 to 40000 in 2021), the time spent by Pharmacists in routine work and in the organisation and research of information also increased, and innovative approaches in terms of resources optimisation are deemed.
Evaluate the performance of cytotoxic compounding after the implementation of relevant operational interventions designed to optimise drug preparation and delivery, between 2018 and 2021 in a University Hospital Centre.
Retrospective analysis of the average waiting times of patients for treatment delivery in some day hospitals (DH), after implementation of the operational interventions.
We began with the computerisation of the chemotherapy protocols, in order to standardise the prescribed treatments, which allows to reduce transcription and prescription time and associated errors. A comprehensive database was also created with the main characteristics of cytotoxic drugs and their physicochemical stability, in order to support pharmaceutical validation. In partnership with DH nursing team, every patient’s treatment schedule was determined beforehand, which allowed an enhanced organisational workflow, and the grouping of more complex drugs to prepare at the same time, and the preparation of drugs with adequate stability in the day before. This resulted in a reduction of average waiting times from 2 hours to only 30 minutes. The DH that benefited the most from these changes was Haematology, which adopted all proposed changes from the start after a multidisciplinary team meeting. Currently, about 45% of treatments are prepared the day before. Since the compounding unit is structured in rotating shifts, this practice allows to minimise drug wastage and to reduce preparation time, which improves the organisational capacity and agility in response to patient needs. When available, preference was given to ready-to-use drug solutions instead of powder formulations, e.g. pemetrexed and bortezomib, reducing preparation time and increasing operator safety. Also, in Gastroenterology DH, we promoted switch from original infliximab to its biosimilar by centrally preparing the biosimilar. We used two pharmacy technicians in the same cabinet instead of one, increasing the preparation yield. The last intervention was in the transportation of the compounded preparations, through the implementation of the delivery of treatments via a pneumatic tube system. This system ensures the integrity of the material and the conformity of the transport, thus allowing the safety and stability of the material transported, without bumps and avoiding changes in physical properties. It was possible to obtain a higher frequency of transportation and better workflow at peak times.
With the same human resources and the operational changes described, it was possible to improve the compounding unit performance, and to reduce patient waiting times in 75%, saving time and money.
With the increasing number of patients and cytotoxic preparations, it was necessary to reorganise the compounding unit in several key features.
Production and Compounding
Rui Relvas, Rui Pedro Marques, Ana Castro, Sérgio Nobre, João Paulo Lopes da Cruz
Medicines compounding by the HPS-staff is a primordial activity, and its centralisation allows several benefits in levels such as patient safety, quality, efficiency, and pharmacoeconomics. Despite this recognised importance, it is not always possible to quantify its added value. The fact that vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are supplied in multi-dose vials and the need to prepare and assure enough doses to vaccinate a broad population presented itself as an excellent opportunity to analyse such indicators.
A quantitative analysis of the importance and added value of centralised preparation and compounding of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 at the Hospital Pharmaceutical Services’ (HPS) Compounding Unit from a Central Hospital in Portugal.
Between 27th December 2020 and 2nd August 2021, 13.030 doses were prepared (96.9% Pfizer/BioNTech; 3.1% AstraZeneca). At the first 3 vaccination sessions, multi-dose vials were diluted at the HPS, and each syringe measured by the nursing-staff previously to the administration.
After these initial sessions, each dose started to be individualised by the HPS-staff on pre-filled, ready-to-use syringes. Each vaccine dose was individualised on a horizontal laminar flow cabinet according to a previously approved operational procedure.
Reception, preparation, and dispensation records were retrospectively analysed. Key performance indicators were quantified.
During the first 3 sessions of vaccination, when nursing-staff measured each vaccine volume, a total of 1640 doses were administered. However, it would be possible to measure a total of 1932 doses (84,9%). The daily maximum of people vaccinated was 770.
In the following sessions was possible to prepare 11.390 doses, with a theoretical maximum of 10.892 (104,6%) and a daily maximum of 1.113.
This yield, over 100%, allowed an excess of 498 doses, which translated into the vaccination of 249 extra individuals fully vaccinated with the 2 doses. Factors like needle and syringe selection and preparation beyond an aseptic and validated environment contributed for the yield increase.
Series-production of compounded medicines in a sterile, validated, and controlled environment allows important benefits and this analysis shows the potentiation of every key performance indicator considered. These data should be considered for the future planning of population-wide activities involving the massive preparation of sterile medicines.
