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
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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.
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.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
François TISSERAND, Pierre MENAGER, Alexandre NAVID, Léa ROUSSET, Adeline BANNIER, Julie MORIO, Hélène PERRIER, Elsa JOUHANNEAU
The geriatricians contacted the pharmacy to deliver training courses to the geriatric residents. This has enabled pharmacists to develop a close relationship with geriatricians to offer them clinical pharmacy activities in their ward. Geriatricians were familiar with clinical pharmacy, in particular the medication reconciliation, which is used to perform the former in other hospitals. Geriatricians are concerned with iatrogenic illness and therefore see medication reconciliation and pharmaceutical analysis as a relevant approach to clinical pharmacy.
A successful model of partnership between Geriatrics and Pharmacy has been created and developed.
A first meeting was held between geriatricians and pharmacists. It was decided a pharmacy resident would be dedicated to a given geriatrician. This first resident’s objectives are to follow the medical rounds and to carry out medication reconciliations upon admission and discharge. Pharmaceutical support has enabled real-time validation for the prescription of the appropriate drugs. As the internship progressed, the resident became the privileged interlocutor for a Pharmacy-Unit relationship.
To date, 37 medication reconciliations were carried out, where the resident followed 2 medical rounds per week over 17 weeks. All unintentional discrepancies were corrected (n=13). Concerning the appropriateness of prescriptions, 16 inappropriate medications were stopped. During the medical rounds, 34% of the therapeutic problems (n=35) were related to inappropriate drug according to guidelines, 17% to dosing errors, 14% to drugs without indication. More than 50% of pharmaceutical interventions were judged capable of preventing harm that requires increased monitoring or treatment or lengthening of the hospital stay (63%). During this period, 54 questions were asked and discussed between the resident and the geriatrician to improve patient care. At the geriatricians’ request, two courses were organized about non mastered topics. On the ward, the resident acted as a go-between for a number of issues such as referencing medical devices, rearranging the storage of medicines or finding the right contact person for information activities.
What has been done needs to be continued and improved. A pharmacist-geriatrician cross-training should be implemented soon. New activities with pharmacist-geriatrician interactions are being created, such as day hospitalization for falls in the elderly population and a geriatric emergency unit.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Juan Campillo, Manuel Bonete, Marta Zayas, Maria Molina, Laura Barrajón, Cristina Martínez, Ángela Rizo, Maria Ángeles Bernabeu, Maria Teresa Aznar
Medication errors (ME) occur in different phases of the drug circuit: prescription (16%), transcription (27%), validation, preparation, dispensing (48%) and administration (9%). The AEP is a tool to guarantee the safety of this circuit, being able to avoid up to 65% of ME. There is also a learning curve in new users of an AEP, confirming the need for support to reduce ME.
1-Maintenance of the Assisted Electronic Prescription Program (AEP)
2-Implementation in 11 wards and in the Emergency Department of a 396-bed tertiary hospital
3-Training
4-To set a pilot AEP
5-Reeducation strategies
1- 1465 drugs included in the Pharmacotherapeutic Guide were configured. 3 levels of danger were created for Hazardous Drugs (HD) and the recommendations for their preparation / administration were agreed upon. The Therapeutic Exchange Guide was integrated into 443 drugs (761 exchange proposals).
2- It started in the Emergency Department and every week a new ward with AEP was opened.Paper was eliminated throughout the circuit, drug dispensing trolleys were modified and a computer was fitted to record administrations at the bedside.114 pharmacotherapeutic protocols were created.
3- A technical training program, changes in procedures, schedules and training documents were designed. 72 sessions were given to 346 physicians and 88 sessions to 543 nurses.
4- 490 incidents were reported, prioritizing the most urgent (compromising patient safety). 224 claims to expedite resolutions. We also collaborated with other hospitals.
5- Welcome plan to train new staff and annual sessions. A tutorial video to focus on the points that caused the most errors was recorded. Preparation of new documents to report the changes.
First hospital to implement computerized administration. Elimination of transcription errors. Improved administration security. Greater visibility of the pharmacist and participation in decision-making. Contribution to development of the AEP and its implementation in 15 more hospitals.
Monitoring the necessary interventions to develop educational strategies when a growing trend is observed. Improve the welcome plan. Continue piloting the new AEP versions Follow the evolution of pending incidents. Evaluate the impact of the educational strategy of the tutorial video.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Marie Guedon, Maëliss Laurent, Thibault Vallecillo, Catherine Mennesson, Mélanie Jennesson Lyver, Dominique Hettler, Céline Mongaret
In March 2021, the “Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament” initiated an experiment to evaluate the relevance and feasibility of the availability of MC as a narcotic drug, in France. In our hospital, we included children to treat drug-resistant epilepsy, and performed a dispensing process to secure the patient care pathway and strengthen collaboration between hospital pharmacists and primary care professional.
The aim of this study is to secure the care pathway of patients included in a national experimentation of medical cannabis (MC) by developing pharmaceutical interviews. Thus, to optimize the continuity of patient care, a pharmaceutical report was developed, and addressed to the community pharmacists of the patient.
A working group was created including clinical pharmacists, a neuropediatrician and a coordination nurse. During medical consultations, pharmaceutical interviews were conducted and led to pharmaceutic reports, sent to the community pharmacies of the patients. In order to evaluate this report, a satisfaction survey was carried out.
During the first six months of the experimentation, three children were included. The clinical pharmacist team (two senior pharmacists and two pharmacy residents) performed ten dispensing processes. During the eight pharmaceutical interviews, four pharmaceutical interventions were performed. Firstly, the interaction between clobazam and MC (noticed in one patient) required a dosage adjustment. Then, the association between MC and hepatotoxic drugs (found in two patients) requires hepatic monitoring. A pharmacovigilance statement was also drafted to report side effects (digestive disorders). The satisfaction survey of community pharmacists showed that the transmitted information, mostly related to the medication review, was considered as useful for the community pharmacies of the patients. This data helped to guide the pharmaceutical interviews during their dispensing process.
Pharmaceutical interviews and their reports lead to secure the patient care pathway and improve the communication amongst health care professionals. Those measures provide an optimal case management and avoid therapeutic breakdown. Nevertheless, difficulties have been reported, mostly due to delay in the supply chain of the community pharmacies. Therefore, this system requires some adjustments before it can be applied on a larger scale. One of the suggestions is a provisional calendar of consultations and dispensations.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Cristina González Pérez, Laura Llorente Sanz, Ángel Liras Medina, Ana Andrea García Sacristán, María Molinero Muñoz, Lidia Ybañez García, José Alberto Peña Pedrosa, Henar González Luengo, María Luaces Méndez, José Manuel Martínez Sesmero
Telepharmacy implementation in the context of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic conducted us through the management of a high volume of complex, real-time both clinical and economic data. A multidisciplinary working group (biomedical engineers from the Innovation Unit, clinicians, managers and hospital pharmacists) developed a software tool in April-May 2021.
The design of an agile, customizable and dynamic dashboard for the visualization and analysis of Telepharmacy key performance indicators (KPI) through Business Intelligence (BI).
Phases:
1. Situation analysis. KPI definition. Ethics committee approval submission.
2. Extraction and processing of raw databases (Telepharmacy database, outpatient dispensing program, hospital admission database, drug catalog) through data mining.
3. Co-creation of the comprehensive dashboard in PowerBI®, by integrating database sources. Different panels have been designed where filters such as age, time frame, medical service, pathology, etc. can be applied.
• Description of general variables: patients, demography, shipments, time frame, medical department.
• Geolocation of the destinations of the patients’ home delivery.
• Pharmacological profile: top 10 drugs, distribution by active ingredient and drug classification group.
• Relative analysis of the beneficiary patients of Telepharmacy vs global outpatients
4. Pilot project by different types of users (administrative staff, clinicians and managers)
5. Structure design for automatic updating of the panels from the successive updates of the source databases
The quality of the raw databases can be a limitation. It has been necessary to define how to handle missing and duplicate data. Pre-processing, normalization and transformation data processes have been applied too.
Working within the hospital network ensures that there are no security gaps in terms of patient data protection.
For the external use of the dashboard, the granularity of the data is modulated to ensure enough clustering to avoid the identification of individual patients.
Processing the huge dataset (more than 2.4 million records) was possible by BI tools that synthesizes data, provides dynamic and engaging visualization (charts and graphs), allows the interactive reports customization for more effective communication of results and apply analysis based on Artificial Intelligence.
Applying new technologies will help us improve strategic decisions: interactions, behaviors and trends perceiving, weak points identifying, uncertainty reducing and over time monitoring.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Sonja Guntschnig, Aaron Courtenay, Ahmed Abuelhana, Michael Scott
The service was established as part of the implementation of a new pharmacy into the hospital. The aim of this good practice initiative was to introduce multidisciplinary work on the wards and provide clinical pharmacy support for the ward personnel. Furthermore, it determined what types of clinical pharmacy interventions are needed at a rural 360-bed hospital in Austria, and assessed the physicians’ acceptance rate of the pharmacists’ suggestions.
A new clinical pharmacy service (CPS) was introduced into Tauernklinikum Zell am See.
Data on 550 interventions made by one clinical pharmacist were collected by convenience sampling over a one-year period and rated on a six-point clinical significance scale. A subset of 26 interventions was rated for clinical significance by four independent physicians to determine inter-rater reliability (IRR). A two-way model inter-rater reliability analysis was performed for the four different physician assessments using SPSS to determine intra-class correlation (ICC).
Prompt acceptance rate by the physicians involved was 71.3% (392/550). In 26.9% (148/550) of all cases, the physician considered a change. The overall average score for all 550 clinical pharmaceutical interventions taken was 2.2. ICC significance scores were correlated with the pharmacist’s scores, ICC for consistency was 0.732 and 0.732 for absolute agreement, thus both can be considered as “good”. Potential for cost reduction associated with the recommended pharmaceutical changes, namely with medication being stopped or dose reduction was 32.7% (180/550) and 25.1% (138/550), respectively.
There is great potential and a definite need for the expansion of CPS in Austria. Only 15.8% of Austrian hospitals have a pharmacy department with even less offering CPS. Many countries have demonstrated the benefits of CPS in hospitals over the past 30 and more years. The need for increased pharmacist staffing in Austrian hospitals needs to be demonstrated to Austrian stakeholders.
Production and Compounding
PILAR RANZ ORTEGA, MARÍA ARRIETA LOITEGUI, DANIEL GONZALEZ ANDRES, ANA MARÍA AGUI CALLEJAS, MARIA TERESA POZAS DEL RIO
– Optimize the workflow:Nursing staff are independent in final product quality control.Dissapear the manual register of compounding sterile preparations.Fewer mixtures are discarded.Also in Pharmacy Service only elaborate the sterile preparations with an economic and safety impact.
– Improve the safety of drug administration in pediatric patients: there are ready-to-use commercial parenteral presentations, which can lead to errors when dosing per kilo,fe: enoxaparin…
– Optimize economic savings:all excess vials are reused
Previously,some parenteral drugs were compounded at Pharmacy Service.The rest of the vials were discarded daily,so the pharmacist had to anticipated some elaborations not to throw,so then some were suspended.
Also, the pharmacists done the final product quality control,it could be delayed the dispensing and specially when it´s necessary to repeat the mixture.
The changes were:
– Re-selection of the parenteral drugs compounded at Pharmacy Service by:
• Economic criterio:the cost of drug has to be >20 euros/vial
• Safety for the pediatric patient:redose individually parenteral drugs “readytouse”
– Review the storage conditions:physicochemical (technical data sheet drug,Stabilis web) and microbiological stability (Good practices for preparation drugs in hospital pharmacy services publised by Spain Goverment) of all parenteral drugs previously selected.Although the physicochemical stability is higher,the final stability will be limited by the microbiological stability and the risk level microbial contamination(USP 2004).
– Standard Operating Procedures with structured and updated information
– Reuse of partially used multi dose vials:we reviewed the physicochemical and microbiological stability of open vial
– Final product quality control by nursing staff
– Save time to pharmacist:daily scheduling instead of anticipated elaboration of sterile preparations
– A nurse involved in the circuit change giving her feedback on the changes
– Traceability of the rests of the vials:stickers are affixed to the opened vials indicating the reconstitution data and the expiration date
– Final product quality control should be done by a diferente nurse to elaborated to detect potencial errors
The total cost savings for this year is 295.778€. After the circuit´s change, the savings have increased by 55% for liposomal amphotericin b, 51% defibrotide, 24% micafungin.
Compounding sterile preparations individualized in Pharmacy Service to patients hospitalized at home, transplanted of hematopoietic progenitors and immunocompromised
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Mariosa Kieran
Review of the 2019 Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) Medication Safety Monitoring Programme, and in-house Emergency Department (ED) medication variances review identified that risk reduction strategies for specific high-risk drugs and high-risk situations were required.
A multidisciplinary team reviewed and implemented initiatives to improve medication safety practices for procedural sedation, emergency tray drugs and ketamine use in emergency settings was undertaken.
• Multidisciplinary teams (MDT) of key stakeholders were formed to review each high-risk drug / practice requiring improvement.
• The MDT developed the required procedures and policies that were further reviewed and approved by the relevant hospital committees.
• The MDT supported roll out of the improvement initiatives through communication, staff education and process review.
• A hospital wide procedural sedation policy and patient information leaflet was developed. Competencies for staff that perform procedural sedation have been identified. A specific procedural sedation incident report form has been piloted. A poster detailing the process for sedation reversal is in development.
• Emergency tray drug preparation, storage and use has been standardised across all hospital settings, including the introduction of dedicated emergency drug bags. The bags enable prompt drug retrieval during emergencies and supports safe storage, documentation and disposal of used /unused emergency drugs.
• A protocol for ED use of ketamine was developed. The protocol supports safe use of ketamine for specific emergency indications for which there is little published information, e.g. procedural sedation, analgesia and agitation.
• The initiatives were implemented and included in ED simulation training.
The described medication safety initiatives have considered the practice challenges for high risk drug access and use in emergency settings. The initiatives have standardised processes for specific high-risk drugs, supporting safer use. MDT collaboration ensured early and ongoing staff engagement from applicable disciplines, facilitating implementation and practice changes. Evaluation of the initiatives in practice is currently under review. The initiatives and learnings are transferrable to other emergency clinical settings.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
MOHAMMED ADNANE EL WARTITI, WAFAA ENNEFFAH, BOUCHRA MEDDAH, MUSTAPHA BOUATIA
The GPG was developed in a concern of practices standardization to guarantee the safety and efficacy of parenteral antibiotics, especially those stored in vials which reuse in possible only if conditions of administration and stability are respected.
We developed a Good Practice Guide (GPG) for the usage of major available parenteral antibiotics.
After we listed all parenteral antibiotics available at the hospital pharmacy, we selected the most used ones and we synthesized all manufacturers’ data to establish a GPG for their administration. We also used literature data to complete missing information in “Summaries of Product Characteristics” related to pediatric use of these drugs. Finally we determined the most antibiotics consuming units according to their defined daily doses, where GPG recommendations will be implemented, before their extension to all other units.
The GPG concerned the most used antibiotics, which mainly belong to the following classes: Beta-lactam, Glycopeptide and Imidazole antibiotics, Aminoglycosides and Quinolones. It specifies the galenical presentation, used solvents, volume and duration of administration, stability after reconstitution as well as incompatibilities and special measures relating to the use of these drugs. The most antibiotics consuming units are pediatric intensive care units, “IIB” pediatric unit and pediatric surgical emergency department.
The approach used in this work can be adopted in other similar structures in order to establish GPGs within the framework of a quality control policy aiming to raise the standard of care.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Theodora Steindl-Schönhuber, Gittler G.
Medication dispensing is a time-consuming, labour-intensive, error-prone process in the daily routine on the wards. The project was triggered by the tight personnel situation during the Coronavirus pandemic: In November 2020 three wards with COVID-19 patients (91 beds) were integrated into our Unit Dose blister service to assist the nursing staff. A multidisciplinary effort (management, IT-department, doctors, nursing staff, pharmacy holding a GMP-manufacturer´s certificate) and long-established electronic patient records including medication data enabled fast realisation.
After transformation back to a chirurgical, an internal and a geriatric ward the service was continued and extended to the neurological unit (49 beds) due to positive feed-back. We wanted to study the observed positive effects of Unit Dose supply in more detail.
In our hospital medication distribution has been switched from manual dispensing by ward staff to automated Unit Dose blister packaging by the pharmacy. Our study investigates the impacts of this change on medication safety, staff satisfaction, time and drug resources.
The percentage of pharmacy-blistered drugs, time gain for nursing staff, employee satisfaction, medication consumption and erroneous blister fillings were investigated.
Unit Dose in hospitals is not standard for many countries and is so far unique in Austria. Therefore, we would like to share our experiences and findings with our colleagues: Solid, oral dosage forms could be supplied by 99% via Unit Dose. Time for manual drug dispensing was reduced by 75%. A survey showed high employee satisfaction with the supply process as well as the quality and correctness of the blisters. Consumption of blisterable drugs and stocks on the ward were reduced by 44% and 78%, respectively. Errors in blister fillings in our setting amount to 0,006%. When compared to literature references on error rates for manual medication dispensing (up to low double-digit rates), patients benefit from increased drug therapy safety. On the basis of these results our initiative was granted the Austrian Patient Safety Award 2021 in the field of medication safety.
We plan to extend Unit Dose to the remaining wards and to investigate patient satisfaction with the blisters, cost-efficiency and distribution of high-cost medications.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Françoise LONGTON, Olivia Polinard, Linda Mattar, Anna Pauels, Mireille Bourton, Michel Mattens
A thorough medication history at admission reduces medication errors. The presence of a clinical pharmacist in the preoperative clinic increases the number of inpatients who receive a standardized medication history by a pharmacist.
On admission, the adaptation of home medications to the hospital formulary can also be a source of error or delay. The fact that the patient is seen by a pharmacist prior to hospitalization makes it possible to anticipate drug substitutions and possible orders for non-formulary drugs.
Moreover, surgeons do not always have the possibility to prescribe medications taken at home upon admission, which results in a delayed availability of the medication. Thanks to this multidisciplinary project the continuity of treatment is assured.
During the preoperative consultation, a pharmacist takes a medication history and enters it into the computerized medical record, making it available for the anaesthetist.
Upon admission of the patient, the continuity of the medication is ensured by the pharmacy.
Indeed, during the admission, the nurse follows a procedure that informs the pharmacy of any medication changes since the preoperative consultation. Afterwards, the pharmacy encodes the treatment into the computerized intra-hospital prescription and delivers it to the department.
Before any drug administration, this treatment is signed by the doctor responsible for the patient.
Preoperative consultations had to be structured so that each patient was first seen by the pharmacist, second by a nurse and third by the anaesthetist.
Thus, the main obstacle was organizational and it was overcome through the centralized management of preoperative clinic appointments.
In 2020, 54% of patients admitted for surgery (elective or emergency surgeries) were seen in the preoperative clinic.
This is an example of good practice as it ensures a standardized medication history and admission management.
