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.
The Early Career Network aims to empower early-career pharmacists by sharing opportunities, insights, and success stories from across 25 member countries.
Together, we’re building a stronger, more connected hospital pharmacy community: one story, one country, one pharmacist at a time.
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
LUCIA SOPENA, ALBERTO FRUTOS, VICENTE GIMENO, OLGA PEREIRA, RAQUEL FRESQUET, ARITZ MERCHAN, REYES GARCIA, PAULA GOMEZ, ALBERTO APESTEGUIA, MARIA ANGELES ALLENDE, TRANSITO SALVADOR
The growing technological development of pharmacy services involves the coexistence of traditional warehouses with automated medicine dispensing systems controlled by different computer programs. The information is split into different systems and databases giving rise to possible errors due to the greater complexity. This is a threat but also an opportunity for the hospital pharmacist to lead the development, review, and improvement of medicine use processes and the use of health technologies to improve quality of care, patients’ safety and reduce costs. KNIME data analysis covered the need of our Pharmacy Service to blend data from any source in a single file simplifying the process.
The Pharmacy Service of a university hospital has implemented Konstanz Information Miner (KNIME) data analysis and develop successful treatment project to optimise the stock management of several medicines.
An initial algorithm was designed by the union of seven files and can be executed at any time to obtain the updated data.
This file provides up-to-date information about the stocks, stock-outs, consumptions, orders and purchasing data of all medicines (average price, laboratory, date and number of orders, units to be received).
In addition, KNIME calculated the coverage time in days and months from weekly and monthly consumption, and the current stock in the warehouses, obtaining a global vision of highest turnaround pharmaceuticals drugs.
The program also allows to link and merge data of the list for shortages of medicines, supply disruptions and restocking time, and to improve the storing, delivering and administering of COVID-19 vaccines.
KNIME program has been especially important in our Pharmacy Service to get better care outcomes and more precise medication ordering, which allows significantly higher patient safety.
KNIME is a tool that could be successfully implemented and appropriately generalised as recommended to all Pharmacy Services that use different data sources and want to have a generalised view of the information. KNIME represents an advance in the stock and purchase management of medicines specialties to work more efficiently, which improve patient care and safety. Digital medication management also contributes to greener pharmacies by preventing unnecessary overstocking and thus excessive disposal arising from expired medications.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Sophia Hannou, Cristina Nicorici, Patricia Spitz, Samuel Cotte, Wanda Bosshard, Nancy Perrottet, Pierre Voirol, Farshid Sadeghipour
Medication use process is at high risk especially for opioids. In our geriatric rehabilitation unit, self-reporting incidents are submitted regularly to our quality system. Among the 44 drugs incidents reported in 2021, 11 included opioids. Prevention with training is a way to reduce these errors. However, theoretical teaching covering the “5 rights” rule remains insufficient. Therefore, an interactive learning with a room of horrors focused on opioids was selected by our unit to prevent these errors. The objective was to cartography and identify the most risky steps and to introduce specific actions to reduce these risks.
A room of horrors with a specific focus on opioids has been developed and implemented to reduce errors in medication circuit.
An interprofessional group created the room of horrors based on real incidents. Fictional patient, clinical situation and opioid prescription were created in the medical software. Several drugs and medical devices were available. A model wore an identification bracelet. Ten errors, covering the five rights, were hidden in the room. A pair of healthcare givers had 20 minutes to realise the simulation (5 for the briefing, 10 for the exercise and 5 for debriefing).
During the World Patient Safety Day 2022, 38 healthcare professionals (19 nurses, 10 assistant nurses, 9 geriatricians) participated to this training. Errors were detected in variable proportions. For example, 58% of the participants uncover the patient identification error, 53% the pharmaceutical form, 53% the expired date, 47% the allergy contraindication and 47 % used the oral syringe.
Results and theoretical notions will be presented to all professionals of the unit. This room of horrors is transposable and can be used in other units of the hospital. A video of this simulation was created as an e-learning. It will be implemented as a continuous training or for new collaborators in our unit and can be shared to other units of the institution. Incidents will be continuously monitored and the training will be adjusted in the future. Based on the success of the room of horrors, this interactive learning will be used in other areas with other clinical or technical dimension.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Isabelle Sommer, Farshid Sadeghipour
PN can be composed of 14 different ingredients, including an amino acids admixture. Therefore, PN represents a complex and high risk preparation. Medication errors (ME) are often related to PN management and may include prescription, transcription, preparation, and administration errors. As the treatment with PN is essential for a good cerebral and neurologic development and a postnatal weight gain, ME can result in growth retardation, developmental disturbances, and infections. The implementation of the standardised PN aimed to achieve a reduction of ME having an impact on vulnerable newborns and to improve the security and quality of their nutritional treatment.
A multidisciplinary development of a hospital’s neonatology and pharmacy departments as well as of an industrial manufacturer resulted in a standardised parenteral nutrition (PN) solution for neonatal patients. This PN solution was implemented as “standard-of-care” for newborn term and preterm infants requiring nutritional treatment within their first days of life.
The standardised PN solution for a peripheral administration route was developed in accordance with ESPGHAN guidelines (2018).
The neonatologists defined internal guidelines for the PN administration and trained the concerned personnel (physicians and nurses).
The industrial manufacturer delivered the ready-to-use PN solution as a sterile double-chamber infusion bag in accordance with Swiss and European regulatory.
The ready-to-use PN solution with a 24/7 availability on ward by means of an 18 months stability at room temperature allowed a considerable reduction (-80%) of on ward preparation of nutritional solutions by nurses.
One-third of individual PN solutions being prepared at the hospital’s pharmacy has been replaced by the standardised PN solution.
This high-quality PN solution allows a secured administration to the vulnerable patients as well as a reduction of ME related the whole PN management resulting in an improvement of the nutritional treatment of neonates and its outcomes on their development.
This special PN solution is already implemented in two Swiss university hospitals and others will follow. Further standardised PN for a central venous administration to neonates need to be developed to allow the completion of a safe nutritional treatment. On ward PN preparations must be prohibited to prevent undetectable ME.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Roberto Brunoro, Mariassunta Miscio, Girolama Iadicicco, Lorenzo Codato, Domenica Condello, Elisa Danieli, Viola Donadello, Alice Osto, Federica Pace, Giulia Valente, Francesca Venturini
In our Italian University Hospital, we established the “Clinical Research Helpdesk” managed by the Clinical Research Unit. According to a daily schedule all personnel with an active role in clinical research can reserve an appointment with a pharmacist and administrative staff to ask questions for the submission of the necessary documentation for the Ethics Committee (EC) and for the evaluation of the study feasibility.
In our Italian University Hospital, we established the “Clinical Research Helpdesk” managed by the Clinical Research Unit. According to a daily schedule all personnel with an active role in clinical research can reserve an appointment with a pharmacist and administrative staff to ask question for the submission of the necessary documentation for the Ethics Committee (EC) and for the evaluation of the study feasibility
The schedule is a Google Calendar tool which permits to generate slots of appointments. Researchers can access it by a link spread during a presentation event of the initiative. At each appointment the presence of a pharmacist for scientific counselling and a member of the EC scientific secretariat is guaranteed.
Since March 2022 the helpdesk accounts for 120 appointments with an average of 17 appointments/month. Typical questions are related to documental forms clinical trials rules and regulation counselling; in the last period support was requested also for practical issues, e.g., CE marking for investigational medical devices, feasibility evaluation, contract agreement and informed consent. After the helpdesk activation, the processing time for all the evaluation steps from the document presentation until EC submission, decreased by 50% compared to the previous year. The service increased study submission: the requests for evaluation of interventional studies received by the helpdesk increased by 15%, whilst for observational studies the percentage increase was 10%.
We are planning to expand this service to reach a complete management of clinical trials introducing a “RedCap team”, consisting of clinical pharmacists and biostatisticians who will help researchers in study design, Clinical Research Forms (CRFs) creation, statistical evaluation and data interpretation. A legal team for legal issues and contract agreement counselling will also be offered. The aim is to increase the visibility of our hospital, making it more attractive for clinical research.
Education and Research
Marie Coenen, Stefanie Goris, Thomas De Rijdt, Isabel Spriet
These changes were necessitated by the increasing number of (complex) clinical trials conducted at UHL. This Belgian 1995-bed, tertiary care hospital constitutes an attractive setting for clinical trials and a coveted partner for sponsors, due to its specialisation in a wide range of medical fields to treat complex pathologies. Adopting the changing research field whilst ensuring the highest regulatory compliance was challenging.
Since 3 years, the clinical trial team of the University Hospitals Leuven (UHL) pharmacy has gone through several metamorphoses. These were realised by introducing an activity based costing (ABC) model enabling financing of staff expansion, extension of the infrastructure, and extensive digitalisation.
In 2016, an ABC-analysis was conducted by the Belgian Association of Hospital Pharmacists to determine the cost of various pharmacy activities within a clinical trial. In 2019, the outcome of the analysis was revised to concur the fast-growing clinical research field.
To affirm the need to apply these updated prices, a retrospective evaluation was performed in 2020 documenting the number of clinical trial protocols, pharmacy staffing and applied prices over the past 4 years.
Rapid growth of pharmacy research activities was shown by an increase in the total number of active clinical trial protocols from 964 in 2017 to 1256 in 2020. Until then, quantitative expansion was not followed by qualitative growth since staffing remained steady at 13 full-time equivalents (FTE) and the applied costs were outdated and not cost-effective. To enable this transition, an up-to-date pharmacy budget table was developed based on the latest ABC-analysis and, along with an estimate of future income, approved by the hospital board in 2020. This allowed the pharmacy research staff to be reinforced to 19 FTE and the infrastructure to be extended to integrate extra storage capacity and research dedicated clean rooms. Starting from 2021, the budget table was implemented into practice using computerised support enabling automated billing.
Future directions include further digitalisation by automating accountability and compounding and focusing on qualitative growth by advancing the role of clinical trial pharmacists into a specialised member of the hospital research development team and of the clinical pharmacy team.
Production and Compounding
Mette Lethan, Tove Hansen, Louise Rasmussen Duckert, Trine Schnor
In the clinic, a need for a NEP, as either a change in an existing product or a new formulation, may arise. Requests are risk assessed by the Hospital Pharmacy Drug Information Centre (DIC) before production is initiated. However, there was no clear process for handling requests, resulting in prolonged process times. NEP may require searching for new raw materials, new packaging or developing of a new formulation, which are time consuming tasks. Therefore, the wish to optimise the process arose.
A procedure for handling requests for new extemporaneous products (NEP) in a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulated production was developed to improve success rate and aligning the process.
A small unit was formed with the purpose of handling requests for NEP. The unit consists of academics employed in the production department with expert knowledge about both sterile and non-sterile production.
A standard operating procedure was formed, in collaboration with DIC, which included a form, to be filled out with information needed for handling the request. This includes drug formulation, strength and dosage, along with any specific requirements.
The unit evaluates the request – is it possible for us to manufacture, sterile or non-sterile, are raw materials available in appropriate quality, analysis requirements, and stability of the product. The evaluation is made in communication with departments like Purchasing, Quality Control/Assurance, Stability as well as the relevant production department.
If a positive outcome, the request is given to the production department, to finalise production. If the outcome is negative a rejection is sent to the requester with a reason.
Based on data from the last three years, we now know how many requests we receive, which type of products are requested, processing times, and which products were made and why/why not.
There is a clear path of communication into the pharmacy and between relevant departments, ensuring that essential pharmaceuticals will be developed in a timely manner or a justified rejection is sent enabling the clinic to look for alternatives.
Some products are difficult to handle, such as cytostatics, antibodies and hormones. Next step is to investigate these product types.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Louise Stilling Rasmussen, Lene Juhl Biltsted, Majken Nørskov Petersen
To implement EAHP statements on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance the hospital pharmacist carried out the intervention in one of the largest psychiatric clinics in the region. The following challenges were observed: Lack of transparency for healthcare professionals. Inflexible and time consuming workflow which did not accommodate the needs in the medical treatment at the clinic. The workflow caused waste of medicine. Changes in the medical treatment, which caused medicine being surplus and ended up expiring. The distribution was expensive and not sustainable.
By changing the handling and distribution of medication for psychiatric patients who are entitled to free medicine from the hospital, we now have an agile, streamlined, patient-safe and transparent workflow that ensures patient safety by accommodation of the seven rights, increases the flexibility and availability of medicine to the patient’s current treatment and gives a more sustainable handling of medicine. Furthermore, resulted in direct and indirect financial savings (estimated direct savings 8%, DKK 250,000).
A medication room was reorganised by the pharmacist according to ATC codes, shelf fronts, active ingredients and expiry date.
Establishment of a computer and scanner, linked to the national Shared Medication Record containing all patients’ prescriptions.
Medicine is ordered online from the hospital pharmacy.
New modern quality assured medication room with electronic registration of medicines dispensed to the patients. This provides transparency of the medical treatment across the healthcare sector. The medicines are stored correctly, and the integrity is maintained until immediate use and permit correct administration. Elimination of medication waste and reduced time consumption for healthcare personnel gave an estimated direct savings of approx. DKK 250,000 plus an uncalculated saving of staff time. Finally, a more sustainable management of medicines and reduced the risk of errors regarding medical distribution was achieved.
The results of this project have scaling potential. A presentation for decision-makers about implementing the solution elsewhere is ongoing. The handling and distribution has been changed from patient-labelled medication to secure digital registration of the medication dispensing from the medicine room, which now allows complete traceability of all medicines dispensed by the pharmacy.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Ariadna Martin Torrente , Itziar Palacios Zabalza, María Olatz Ibarra Barrueta, Maialen Palacios Filardo, Garazi Miron Elorriaga
To optimise the functioning and the management of the procedures and an accessible and effective communication system in the PS. Moreover, the quality of the shipment is guaranteed all the time. The development of a circuit has allowed being faster and more efficient during its preparation than before.
Establishing the circuit of execution, preparation, distribution, and delivery of medicine to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) from the Pharmaceutical Service (PS) of a tertiary hospital in the Basque Country (Spain). The circuit has been designed taking into account the criteria in a context of humanitarian donations, published and updated by the Spanish Agency of Drugs and Sanitary Products (AEMPS) on 16 March 2022
Since it has been included in the daily activity of the service it has cause and increase its amount of work, hence, daily routine tasks have been slowed down, given the increase of petitions the hospital has had during last year. However, its creation has allowed being faster and more efficient during its preparation.
The circuit begins with the request of NGO, which has to be authorised by the hospital’s directory. Then, in the procedure participate pharmacists; pharmacy technicians and office clerks who prepare the donation rely on the personalised list that the donation has created. Once, the necessary documents are filled out and they are sent to the AEMPS.
From November 2021 to September 2022, 7 donations have been carried out; these contained 100 active ingredients, concretely 15.198 units. We could find most of them in the WHO model lists of essential medicines. The NGO’s destinations have been Guatemala, Romania, Ukraine and Senegal. The medications sent most according to the ATC classification were 21% anti-infective medicines, 17% cardiovascular, 13% nervous system, 12% systemic hormonal preparations and 3% alimentary tract and metabolism.
The project is easily enforceable in any Spanish PS that is willing to process a donation at any given occasion. Some of our ideas for the future are the creation of a standard list including common medications, avoiding personalised lists, in addition to connect it to our internal programme to be faster when preparing the donation.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
JOSE MANUEL DEL RIO GUTIERREZ, EUGENIA SERRAMONTMANY MORANTE, SARA GIMENEZ GINER, PILAR ROVIRA TORRES, PATRICIA GARCIA ORTEGA, CARLOTA VARON GALCERA, ISABEL CIDONCHA MUÑOZ, MARIA QUERALT GORGAS TORNER
One of the most important challenges we currently face is the increase of clinical trials (CTs) including CBMPs. These drugs require special storage, preparation, delivery and administration; so developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and ensuring proper coordination between all professionals involved, including pharmacists, is essential.
Management of cell-based medicinal products (CBMPs) was protocolised in an onco-haematology clinical trials unit.
Pharmacists, doctors and nurses participate in a multidisciplinary team to standardise CBMPs handling. The following protocol was agreed:
1.The entire multidisciplinary team is notified when a CBMP prescription is planned to ensure proper coordination.
2.The CBMP is manufactured by the CT sponsor. Then, it is transferred to the blood bank for cryopreservation. CBMPs usually require a temperature between -80ºC and -200ºC and expire in some weeks.
3.Before CBMP administration, patients undergo lymphodepletion. The lymphodepletion regimen is performed according to the CT protocol or arranged between medical and pharmacy teams. Chemotherapy, serum therapy and antiemetic regimen are discussed and specified.
4.Once the treatment is prescribed, it is verified by a pharmacist who ensures its suitability.
5.On the infusion day, the blood bank delivers the CBMP. Then, a pharmacist checks if it arrives in proper condition and it is defrosted. The pharmacy department reconditions the CBMP in another infusion bag or syringe if required. This is the most critical point because CBMP expires after some minutes of defrosting, requiring extensive coordination.
6.CBMP is administered according to the CT protocol.
72 patients were recruited in 15 CT. 8 of them use as CBMP Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cells (CAR-T-CELLS), 4 Specific Peptide-Enhanced Affinity Receptor T-Cells (SPEAR-T-CELLS), 2 Tumour-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs) and one cytokine-stimulated Natural-Killer-Cells (CS-NK-CELLS). Seven assays are intended for haematological neoplasms and eight for solid malignant neoplasms. One assay requires CBMP syringe reconditioning in the pharmacy department.
The described process optimises CBMPs handling, avoids delays in administration and reduces the risk of misuse.
CBMPs represent a novel therapy, and pharmacists have an essential role in developing new procedures to incorporate them into clinical practice. This protocol may be helpful for other centres to implement guidelines to work with CBMPs.
Production and Compounding
Louise Rasmussen Duckert, Marianne Kjettrup Jensen, Mette Lethan, Trine Schnor
The hospital pharmacy wishes to support the implementation of OPAT and during the process the need for standardised kits with utensils was identified. The availability of kits with necessary utensils for aseptic handling of parenteral infusion would simplify and standardise the work for hospital and home nurses. Considerations regarding patient safety and sustainability were also in favour of the kits, as choice of utensils could secure compliance to regional guidelines considering use of closed systems and rinse of the line after infusion. Kits containing the exact needed utensils for an administration also reduces the possible waste.
The hospital pharmacy has composed standard kits with utensils for outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT).
The kit is composed in collaboration between the pharmacy, hospital nurses and home nurses. The best suited infusion set was chosen – a closed system with two spikes for antibiotic mixing and infusion. Hereby nurses avoid direct contact with antibiotics and avoid antibiotic aerosols in the citizen’s home. The infusion set contains no PVC, phthalates or latex. When fully emptied the infusion set can be discarded as regular waste.
The kit also contains a sterile cover for the workstation, sterile ethanol swabs, gloves, pre-filled saline syringes for rinse of the line after infusion and a written manual. All is packed and labelled by the hospital pharmacy and lot numbers are registered for traceability.
The kits have been tested in selected municipalities and the content of the kit has been adjusted. As a result of the feedback a film has been recorded showing the handling of the infusion set. The video is used for training and a QR code on the written manual guides the home nurse to the video if needed. The kit is now used widely in the region and response is positive. With the set-up being identical in all municipalities in the region, handling antibiotics and utensils is simpler for the hospital nurse at discharge.
As the number of patients in home-based OPAT rises, experiences with the kits will probably result in wishes for adjustments. A new kit with utensils for changing PVK is under development.
