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.
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
P. Frandsen
M. Nissen
C. Olesen
Medicines dispensed by an automatic multidose dispensing system (ADS) was introduced on an orthopaedic surgery ward to improve the occupational health of pharmacy technicians. The hope was to release time for medication reconciliation, allowing pharmacy technicians to use their professional skills in supporting the orthopaedic surgeons and enhancing patient safety.
In the orthopaedic surgery ward, pharmacy technicians manually dispensed medication to inpatients and upon discharge. Prior to dispensing, they compared prescriptions in the hospital electronic patient journal to prescriptions patients receive at home. In case of discrepancies, the orthopaedic surgeon was contacted to make any necessary changes.
Due to pharmacy technicians’ occupational health being affected by long hours dispensing medicines, medicines dispensed by an ADS was introduced. Per agreement with the chief surgeon, pharmacy technicians took on expanded responsibilities, including authority to independently adjust certain prescriptions.
Pharmacy technicians were asked to register time used dispensing medicines and time used reviewing prescriptions before the workflow changes and again after six months.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the six pharmacy technicians involved before the workflow changes and again after six months.
Total pharmacy technician time spent dispensing medicines per day was reduced from 326 minutes (range: 175–546) to 203 minutes (range: 105–358).
Time spent on prescription review per day increased from 44 minutes (range: 18–77) to 93 minutes (range: 30–170).
Before introducing the ADS, several pharmacy technicians reported physical strain in their hands and mental fatigue after long hours of dispensing.
After the introduction of the ADS, there was a marked improvement in occupational health. Pharmacy technicians, who had experienced strain in their hands noticed improvement, and half of them also reported reduced mental fatigue.
Collaboration with surgeons was mentioned by pharmacy technicians as problematic before the new workflows but significantly improved, with pharmacy technicians feeling their expertise was appreciated by surgeons and ward staff.
Across Denmark, pharmacy technicians spend hours dispensing medicines in hospital wards. Implementing an ADS could relieve pharmacy technicians, improve occupational health and allow pharmacy technicians to focus on other tasks such as medication reconciliation, which would enhance patient safety.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Hui-Yu Chen, Kai-Cheng Chang
Medication safety remains a cornerstone of healthcare quality, yet adverse drug events (ADEs) continue to cause preventable harm in hospitals. Traditional manual dispensing workflows, dependent on human memory and paper-based checks, are prone to errors, particularly in large medical centers with high prescription volumes.
We launched the “Smart Dispensing and Data Governance Project,” aiming to transform the pharmacy workflow through digitalization and data-driven quality management.
A two-pronged strategy was adopted: (1) deployment of smart dispensing hardware and (2) establishment of a big data governance platform. The hardware featured personalized login for accountability, closed-loop barcode verification of both medications and prescription bags, LED guidance and voice feedback for real-time alerts, and final barcode validation before dispensing. Advanced automation such as real-time stock sensing, weight-based verification, and image-assisted accuracy checks further minimized human errors. A SAS Visual Analytics–based Business Intelligence dashboard visualized error trends and enabled continuous PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) improvement cycles through near real-time feedback.
Implementation led to substantial quality improvements: the dispensing error rate decreased by 78.3% (0.023‰ to 0.0050‰, P < 0.05); data analysis time for error monitoring shortened from 4 hours to 10 minutes (-98.3%, P < 0.05); and pharmacist training time reduced from 10 days to 3 days (−60.0%). All indicators showed statistically significant enhancement in accuracy and efficiency. Integrating smart dispensing systems with big data governance effectively advanced medication safety and operational efficiency. This model established a scalable, data-driven, and high-reliability pharmacy workflow, transforming quality management from reactive correction to proactive prevention and serving as a replicable benchmark for digital hospital transformation.
We plan to apply AI algorithms to dynamically optimize drug storage locations based on usage and safety risk, and to digitalize all storage displays through an integrated electronic shelf–label system. These enhancements will further strengthen accuracy, reduce human-factor variability, and advance a highly reliable smart dispensing workflow.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Marinos Petrongonas, Maria Fragiadaki, Eleni Rinaki, Leonidas Tzimis
HPs were facing challenges related to:
• Stuff shortages in a high risk environment with increasing uncertainty
• Implementation of Directive 2001/83/EC on Falsified Medicines; deadline for Greece is 2025
• Medicines’ shortages for which optimal inventory management procedures are needed • Patient safety and quality of pharmaceutical services: quality assurance processes, medicines’ traceability, monitoring expiration dates and respond-time to ward’s requests
During the last 2 years, hospital pharmacists (HPs) actively participated in the supply, installation and functional integration of the first Automated (Robotic) Dispensing System (ADS) in Greece, in Chania General Hospital (CGH). It is a centralised distribution system installed in the pharmacy department which receives, stores and distributes packages of medicines.
It has a storage capacity of approximately 20,000 packages, including one robotic arm, three distribution exits, two loading ways (semi- and fully-automated), with software comprised. Speeds range from 200 to 900 for loading and 350 to 760 packages/hour for unloading. Under HPs’ direction, medicine management procedures were modified to ensure ADS’ functionality.
Since Pharmacy department of CGH was the first to install an ADS, a new route had to be inaugurated, concerning how HPs:
• Developed the proposal
• Documented and justified such a supply to be prioritised in funding
• Performed market research in Europe, as no such national market existed
• Drafted technical specifications, to assure the best system supplied
• Participated in an international tendering procedure (budget 130,000 euros)
• Planned and supervised installation and functional integration of the system
• Managed interoperability between ADS’ software and the pharmacy’s Information System
• Faced issues related to different barcodes on medicines’ packages
After 3 months of use:
• 50% of medicines’ codes and 35% of total packages are dispensed with ADS monthly
• 1.4 full-time pharmacy assistants equivalent is saved
• Response time to requests decreased
• Traceability and quality are better assured
• Falsified medicines’ check can run automatically
• Storage space is saved
HPs are ready to share nationally and internationally their experience in developing and installing an ADS with colleagues interested in adopting similar solutions. Hospitals from the same region have already shown their interest.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
