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.
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
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Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Hospitals are facing strong economic constraints and increasing requirements in terms of quality and safety of care. To address these difficulties, a solution could be to reorganise processes and relocate resources through the use of industrial engineering Business Process Improvement approaches such as Lean.
An original Lean method for business process improvement was designed and tested in an acute general medicine department in order to improve the mediation management process.
A Lean method for the hospital setting was elaborated based on a triangulation between literature data, semi-structured interviews and a case study. This method, relies on 5 operational activities (Understand the process, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Implement) and 6 support activities (Establish top management support, understand the environment, Organize a project team, Manage change, Monitor and continuously improve). A multidisciplinary project team (nurses, head nurses, pharmacists, physicians, pharmacy technicians, nurse’s aide) was then formed to experiment this method in the acute general medicine ward.
This project allowed improving the efficiency and quality of the medication management process. Medication errors at admission and risk for medication errors during administration were reduced (46% vs 12%), non -value added activities during administration were eliminated (25 minutes/nurse/day saved), ward stock management was streamlined (double bin system) and medication delivery was secured. More than 80% of the stakeholders surveyed (45) considered that the changes made to the process improved their working conditions (no impact for the others) and all the participants to the project team were satisfied or very satisfied with the project. The team now meets once a month to continuously improve the process.
The top management of the hospital has decided to promote this method and is currently creating and training a specific improvement team to support other improvement projects in the hospital.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
A. Rodríguez-Perez, M.I. Sierra-Torres, M.D. Toscano-Guzmán, A. Monzón-Moreno, M. Soriano-Martinez, A. Lluch-Colomer, M.D. Santos-Rubio
According to the guidelines and recommendations for the rational use of medication, prescriptions of HAARTs must be standardised following the principles of efficiency and based on the best evidence available.
A multidisciplinary group of clinical pharmacists and physicians made an easy-to-read handout that summarised the main recommendations of GESIDA for the treatment of naive patients, treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). The hand-out consisted of a table with the allowed and not-allowed antiretroviral combinations and the exceptions. The multidisciplinary group disseminated the handout to the prescribers through clinical sessions. The multidisciplinary group made a 6 month study to evaluate the adherence to GESIDA, previous and after the implementation of the easy-to-read handout.
We did not have any problem implementing these recommendations or organizing the clinical sessions.
The multidisciplinary group made a retrospective study of the 6-months previous the implementation of the handout, by a chart review of the prescriptions. One hundred naive patients were evaluated. We found an eleven per cent of deviations of the recommendations, none of them justified. The multidisciplinary group made a prospective study during a 6-months period after the implementation of the handout, by a chart review of the prescriptions. Seventy-one naive patients were evaluated. We found a 7% of deviations of the recommendations, three of them were justified because of co-morbidity that contraindicated the recommended medication. We also made a follow-up of the treatment of the patients of the retrospective study, six of the eleven patients of that group changed their HAART to the recommended ones.
The multidisciplinary team has periodic meetings to evaluate the adherence to the recommendations and to study news reported by GESIDA. The economic impact of the practice is planned to be evaluated.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
So far, only pharmacists could access the pharmaceutical care record. The creation of the electronic medical record in the Health System has allowed patient data to be centralised and can be accessed easily and quickly. It is an opportunity to integrate our care service as pharmacists within the multidisciplinary care as well as to facilitate data consultation to other professionals that care for the same patient.
Integrate the outpatient pharmaceutical care record to the electronic patient record via an application form included in the process of each pathology.
First question was where the application form should be included when the patient came in for a consultation. In order to unify all the actions relating to the process, it was decided to include the form in the main process instead of creating a specific process for the pharmacy department. For example, a form for an HIV patient should be included in his Infectious Disease Consult process.
Another issue was to define what items should be taken into account for the follow up.
Finally, the following items were included: reason for the visit, pathology, clinical data, outpatient treatment, regular treatment, drug-related problems, adverse drug allergies/past issues, adherence, checks to mark whether the patient has received the oral and written information, the leaflet from the host to the Outpatient Pharmacy Service and a free text to write down given recommendations.
Improvement of patient care, increased safety in the use of drugs and in the avoidance of medical errors has all been achieved, as well as the promotion of teamwork amongst professionals who attend to the patient. From the information technology perspective, data export can be provided for future researches.
All professionals should integrate their activities to take advantage of collaboration and increasing synergies.
