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.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Samantha HUYNH, Olivia MAZZASCHI, Valérie TALON, Emilie MOREAU
Healthcare systems face a growing need to balance patient care with environmental responsibility. This approach was initiated at the request of surgeons and was proposed during institutional committees addressing environmental issues.
Our aim was to perform a comprehensive analysis of the potential benefits and challenges associated with the substitution of single-use medical devices (SUDs) with reprocessable medical devices (RMDs) within a hospital setting.
We evaluated environmental, economic and organizational impact of this transition by comparing the carbon footprints and costs associated with the substitution of SUDs (suture and antiseptic trays) with RMDs as well as their acceptance by healthcare professionals.
Environmental impact was evaluated by considering manufacturing origin, transportation, and material composition, calculating carbon equivalence based on weight. The energy and water consumption during the sterilization process of RMDs was also included in the carbon footprint quantification.
Economic considerations included SUDs purchasing and management costs as well as acquisition and sterilization costs for RMDs.
Observational audits (n=30) and user satisfaction surveys (n=7) were conducted to evaluate the acceptance of RMDs.
RMDs led to a significant reduction in the carbon footprint for both devices. The carbon equivalence for suture trays was reduced from 7.1 kg eqCO2 for SUDs to 4.0 kg eqCO2 for RMDs; for antiseptic trays, SUDs generated 2.2 kg eqCO2 while RMDs 1.1 kg eqCO2. The potential annual reduction of CO2 emissions is 5.2 tonnes per year.
The economic analysis showed that the initial investment in RMDs could be recovered within a remarkably short timeframe (10 months for antiseptic trays, 5 years for suture trays) making it a viable long-term cost-saving strategy.
User feedback showed a preference for RMDs despite slight inconveniences, with 71% of respondents supporting the reduction of SUDs and 83% perceiving RMDs as of superior quality.
Our findings underscore the feasibility and benefits of transitioning to RMDs, with a significant reduction in carbon footprint and economic viability. While complete elimination of SUDs presents challenges, a balanced approach prioritizing sustainability without compromising quality of care is possible. We believe that this approach can be replicated in diverse healthcare settings, contributing to a more sustainable future management.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Douwe van der Meer, Peder Nygard
In our hospital 30% of the daily distributed medication for individual patients was not administered. Reasons for not administering were for example lack of need because of patients clinical performance, discontinuation of prescriptions or early discharge. Because of safety concerns, like mix-ups, our standard procedure was to discard all returned medication. This resulted in a waste of about 220.000 pills annually.
We reduced medicine waste by 90% by reusing returned medication from our medical wards. With this result we made an important step for our hospital to meet the national sustainability goals in the Dutch ‘Healthcare Green Deal (3.0)’.
Reusing returned medication brings multiple safety concerns. By performing a prospective risk analysis we identified three major risks: mix-ups, expired medication and accepting non-qualitative packages (like slightly opened blisters or incomplete labels). With these risks identified we redefined our distribution process on four key elements: 1) Every medication has a barcode on unit level and if not, is labelled by our team through duplicating the ‘Falsified Medicine Directive’-barcodes to small 2D barcode labels which includes expiration date. 2) All returned medication is checked by a pharmacy employee on major quality aspects. 3) Returned medication is placed in a separate ‘return-box’ in front of the original stock inside the distribution cabinet. 4) Expiration dates are checked more frequently and are checked upon distribution and administration through barcode scanning.
The new distribution process was implemented in all of our eight distribution cabinets and resulted in saving 90% of the returned medication; witch amount to 200.000 pills and 70.000 euro savings annually. On average we work with 6 employees daily, who need 15 minutes extra per person per day to process returned medication.
Our goal is to save all returned medication that meets our quality standards. 5% of the returns that are not reused are medicines not included in the assortments of the specific distribution cabinet, so extra logistic and administrative steps are needed to place them back in the pharmacy stock. We are exploring new ways to make this next step in reducing medication waste further.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Leonor Romero, Paloma Lozano, Veronica Canales, Vanesa Dechado, Marta Puebla, Ricardo Villarubia, Isamar Gomez, Estefanía Ramírez, Juan Rodríguez, Belén Soto
According to Directive 2011/62/EU, one of the measures is the inclusion in the secondary packaging of the drug of a Unique Identifier that allows the recognition of a unitary case at any point in the supply chain until it is dispensed to the patient. Another is the development of a European repository that allows the traceability of medicinal products for human use within the European market. In Spain, in accordance with Article 84.1 of Royal Decree 717/2019 of 5 December 2009, the SNSFarma Node was established as an instrument for technological integration and information exchange with the national repository known as the SEVeM.
The logistics company of our hospital aggregates several codes corresponding to the Datamatrix of the individual containers in an electronic file, in order to send the reading automatically to Spanish Medicines Verification System (SEVeM).
The shipment of the drugs and the electronic file will be linked by the Seria Shipping Container Code (SSCC), which will univocally guarantee traceability between the two. The Pharmacy Service staff receive the delivery notes by reading the barcode without the need to scan the Datamatrix of each container.
Since the implementation of this project between July 2023 to September 2023, a total of 61 delivery notes have been registered under the code aggregation system with 27 suppliers involved. The number of packages read was 2151.
This project ensures the automatic sending of readings to SEVeM and to facilitate the reception of delivery notes at the Pharmacy Services by barcode reading.
This has allowed pharmacy staff to save time in receiving delivery notes, to improve traceability of batches and expiry dates of medicines, to improve stock control thanks to the confirmation of quantities received and to verify the medicines in accordance with European regulations to fight medicine falsifications and ensure that medicines are safe and that the trade in medicines is rigorously controlled.
A limitation is the existence of suppliers that are not involved in this project since their delivery is not done through the logistics company. In these cases, the datamatrix reading must be performed on each container individually.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Minke Jongsma, Marja Bogaards
The use of medication is related to almost one-fifth of the total CO2 emission caused by the public health sector. Conservative estimates reveal that the amount of medication distributed by public pharmacies but wasted (thrown away unused) by patients in the Netherlands equalizes a total amount of 100 million euro. Data regarding medication waste in Dutch hospitals is not yet available.
We analyzed the stream of medication waste in our hospital and tried to reduce this by addressing the main causes.
In our hospital setting, medication for each in-hospital patient is distributed daily for the next 24 hours by the hospital pharmacy. All unused medication is returned to the hospital pharmacy. We quantified and analyzed all returned unused medication in our hospital on 9 separate days.
On average, 27,9% of all medication distributed to in-hospital patients is daily returned to the hospital pharmacy. The largest part of this returned medication, 83.5% (23.3% of all medication distributed to in-hospital patients) is wasted daily. This equalizes a total amount of 87.500 counts yearly, representing a value of 41.000 euro. In terms of waste, 60 medical waste bins of 50 liter (a total volume of 3000 L) are needed to dispose of this medical waste.
Analysis of the main causes reveal that distributing both parenteral medication and medication prescribed ‘as needed’ to in-hospital patients contribute largely to medication waste, as well as the inability to adequately anticipate on the discharge of patients.
By addressing the main causes we can decrease medication waste by 45%. Further reduction can be achieved by considering re-uptake of returned medication in our main stock. Our medication distribution process, however, is mainly based on financial and quality based decisions, which excludes re-uptake. But should impact on planetary health not also be considered? To realise this, though, both ecotoxicologic data as well as information related to environmental impact of medication production should be available and easily accessible.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
MARIANNE DE LACROIX DE LA VALETTE
Managing medications in hospitals is both a health and an economic issue.
Hospital pharmacists are working to improve supply, traceability, safety and stock management in order to meet these challenges.
Healthcare staff must be able to administer the medications prescribed to patients in complete safety, with the products available at the time of order. The management of medications within the department represents a significant amount of time that needs to be reduced.
The objective of this study was to analyse the impact of deploying automated dispensing cabinets (ADC) in a cardiac surgery intensive care unit within a university hospital in France.
In 2022, an on-site study was conducted in the cardiac intensive care unit (18 beds) at Rennes University Hospital. The aim was to quantify the time allocated to manage medications before and after the installation of the automated dispensing cabinet.
Several types of measurable metrics were identified and compared. These include picking time for nurses of medications for administration to the patient; time allocated for ordering and storing medications; time to respond to emergency orders; management of narcotics; and time in the management of expired medications.
A comparison of the pre and post installation of the automated dispensing cabinet showed nursing time savings in the picking of controlled drugs of 53%. Overall restocking time was decreased by 9%. The number of urgent order requests to pharmacy was decreased by 51%.
The time allocated towards removing expired medications was reduced by 3.8 days / year (nurse FTE). Lastly, the implementation of automated dispensing cabinets reduced the value of the department’s stock by 26%.
The time spent by nurses in managing medications was significantly reduced after the installation of automated dispensing cabinets. However, some of this time is transferred to the central pharmacy towards restocking the medications into the automated dispensing cabinets.
The automated dispensing cabinets makes it possible to monitor the stock of medicines in a department on a daily basis. This enables for data driven decision making on selection of decentralized stock and respective quantities to maintain.
The deployment of automated dispensing cabinets improves overall efficiencies and allows more time for nurses to provide direct patient care.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Bitten Abildtrup, Lone Deleuran, Mira Dysgård, Nina Müller, Sofie Pedersen, Trine Schnor, Ulrik Wøldike
It is estimated that medicine contribute 20% of the Danish regions total CO2e emissions. Amgros and the Hospital Pharmacies of Denmark are committed to develop carbon reduction initiatives to assist the regions CO2e reduction strategy. It is essential to identify the main contributors of CO2e emissions in the lifecycle of a drug to support CO2e reduction.
The Danish procurement organization Amgros I/S is responsible for buying medicine for Danish public hospitals. As part of the ambition for sustainability, The Capital Region Pharmacy (RAP) in collaboration with Amgros has made a bottom-up hotspot life cycle analysis (hLCA) of the carbon-footprint of morphine in tablets and solution for injection. The hLCA identified the main CO2e emission factors from API/excipient production to administration of the drug.
The energy consumption of the production processes was mapped at RAP. Five reference flows were modulated (tablets in three types of primary packaging and solution for injection in two types) and reported. The hLCA data for the API was extracted from literature while data for the excipients and packaging material were calculated using Ecoinvent. Ecoinvent is a life cycle inventory database used to support environmental assessments of products and processes.
The preliminary conclusion of the analysis shows the largest CO2e emissions per DDD originates from administering the drug due to the use of single-use materials.
Leaving out administration of the drug, the main CO2e emissions from tablets are API production and packaging materials. Packaging materials are the main CO2e contributor for the solution for injection.
The end report of the LCA was available, end of autumn 2023.
The hLCA’s are being used internally in Amgros to develop criteria for tenders. The hospital pharmacies can use the hLCA calculations to identify key subprocesses where reduction of the CO2e footprint is greatest.
The results contribute to:
• Danish hospital pharmacies better understand the CO2e emissions when prescribing and administering medicines
• Dialogue with the pharmaceutical industry about their CO2e emissions hotspots
Finally, the results will hopefully encourage other countries to incorporate environmental criteria in future medicinal tendering process for medicines.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Line Jarvig, Louise Konradsen Refsgaard
The medicine pickup lockers were implemented to offer patients in the outpatient clinics a more flexible and accessible way to receive their medication e.g., 24-hour access close to home.
Patients who are receiving medicine free of charge from outpatient clinics traditionally pick up the medication by face-to-face contact with the nurses in the clinic every third month. Patients, who are in remission and already well-informed about their medication are offered to receive their medication in one of seven medicine pickup lockers in the capital region of Denmark. To ensure adherence, safety and optimal outcome of treatment, the healthcare professionals carefully pick out the patients, who are suited for this method. Regular contact between the healthcare professional and the patient is also continued, primarily by using digital contacts through the EPJ-system and by telephone.
The implementation of this new direct-to-patient distribution method was carried out by the Capital Region Hospital Pharmacy in close collaboration with the region’s hospitals and outpatient departments. The implementation requires that the clinical staff rethink their practice and accept that dispensing is no longer their responsibility. Dispensing and distribution of the medication is now handled by pharmacy staff at the hospital pharmacy’s warehouse. From here the medication is transported to the requested location and the patient will receive a text message when the medicine is ready for pickup in the medicine pickup locker.
Patients find medicine pickup lockers accessible, safe, and easy to use. Importantly, the quality of medicine dispensing is increased due to hospital pharmacy staff dispensing the medicine rather than nurses. Changing the workflow so that nurses do not dispense medicine also alleviates the shortage of nurses. In addition, this method is without doubt environmentally optimal compared to the traditionally pick up method, since transportation of both patients and the medicine is decreased.
Next step will be to offer prescription pickups at private pharmacies, which can ensure that patients can pick up their medicine at several different locations around the region and make it possible for the patients to communicate any concerns to a healthcare provider.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
ERMINIA CACCESE
The aim is to hold a value-based tender by incorporating the clinical benefit into the competition score for the procurement of Hyaluronic Acid (AI) for intra-articular use.
The main purpose of this tender is to purchase the product with the best cost-effectiveness profile according to the Net Monetary Benefit (NMB) and putting drugs and medical devices in competition.
In Italy as well as in Europe medical devices (MDs) procurement is based on construction features and on price. The price of MDs is not negotiated by regulatory authorities, but it’s defined by industry. Today, in a limited resources scenario, it is necessary to implement value-based procurement.
We used the NMB method (1) as an award criterion, a parameter that evaluates the cost-effectiveness of the therapeutic intervention.
A bibliographic search was carried out to support the chosen endpoints and the tender lots. The utility and cost values linked to therapeutic failure were sought and the minimum accepted quality was defined. The starting price was calculated per therapy cycle/patient.
Finally, a software was designed to calculate the value-based competition score.
The tender consisting of 3 lots was announced with resolution n.209/2023 (2). The technical evaluation focuses on the enhancement of the clinical benefit based on the following scores: price (30)/clinical benefit (70). The endpoints chosen for the evaluation of clinical benefit are deltaVAS and deltaEQ-5D. Both drugs and MDs can be offered for each therapeutic indication.
This tender is an example of value-based procurement that uses the evaluation of clinical effectiveness as a quality evaluation criterion.
The aim is to quantitatively link the purchase price of a therapeutic intervention to the extent of the benefit observed in clinical studies, rewarding the interventions that produce the greatest benefits. The innovative nature of our tender lies in putting drugs and MDs in competition in the same tender lot and for the same therapeutic indication, thus purchasing the product with the best cost-effectiveness profile based on scientific evidence. We are awaiting the award of the tender, the results of which we will publish shortly.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Sam Coombes, Cath Cooksey
Inhalers account for 3% of the total NHS (National Health Service) carbon footprint and 73 million inhalers are dispensed every year in the UK. There are legal obligations for the NHS to reduce the emissions it can influence and reach net zero by 2045, with an ambition to reach an 80% reduction by 2039. There is no national program to recycle inhalers. We wanted to establish a recycling model which is efficient and can be easily replicated.
We established an inhaler recycling model which enables patients to drop off any inhaler at multiple healthcare settings and for these inhalers to be collected and recycled, using a pre-existing logistical model.
This work is part of a collaborative working project in conjunction with NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board and Chiesi Limited. Alliance Healthcare are a sub-contracted service provider in the project to support with the logistical model. We wanted to demonstrate a new model for inhaler recycling using existing infrastructure aiming to improve return rates whilst keeping costs as low as possible. In Kent and Medway, East Kent with a population of 720,000 people, was chosen as a pilot area, as this presented a mixed patient demographic, and the highest volume of acute hospitals, community pharmacies and dispensing GP practices. Inhalers are collected from recycling sites made up of acute hospital sites, community pharmacies and GP dispensing practices, at the same time as medicine supplies are delivered, using a sophisticated logistical model which already exists therefore not requiring any additional transportation. Once collected by a specialist waste management company, from the wholesaler depot, the inhaler components are then recycled and gases from MDI inhalers captured and reused in other industries.
A 12-month pilot has been initiated, the infrastructure a logistical model has been put in place and data is being collected.
The data from the collection process will continue to be collated, the carbon savings calculated, and a toolkit developed so this can be easily adopted in other regions.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Julie Featherstone, Alice Lo, Golnaz Douraghi-Zadeh
The dashboard was initiated to provide accurate and timely expenditure data to the Medicines Value Team (MVT) which could then be appropriately interrogated and fed back to all relevant Trust and pharmacy staff. The aim was to quickly identify unexpected variance and progress on CIPs that allowed review with clinical and procurement teams.
With the informatics team, a dashboard was developed to monitor medicines expenditure and Cost Improvement Plan (CIP) savings on a monthly basis. The dashboard incorporated varying tracking methods to provide timely data on biosimilar switching, contract price changes and individual medicine optimisation schemes at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust (EKHUFT).
The dashboard required many hours working with the informatics team to ensure good understanding of the information required. Different CIPs had to be tracked and reported in different ways. A mixture of reporting and visual styles were needed to represent the data in a user-friendly way. It was recognised that data validation was required to ensure the accuracy of the dashboard, using a variety of recognised resources, e.g. RX Info.
A full, multi-tabular dashboard is available on the Trust Information Portal. Tracked expenditure data is reported monthly by the MVT at pharmacy and Trust meetings. This has enabled realistic and timely data to be included in overall financial forecasting and feedback to clinical teams on their CIPS. The dashboard has been designed to support the rapid addition of new schemes as they are identified to track potential savings and report at the earliest opportunity. The combined use of the dashboard with close MVT oversight has resulted in closer working with clinical and procurement teams. This has led to better identification, tracking and reporting of all medicines saving opportunities in the Trust, saving over £1 million in 2022/23.
The dashboard will continue to be developed further by the MVT to maximise the capture and reporting of CIPs at EKHUFT. It will also be used to support regular medicines value reviews with senior clinical pharmacists and their teams to help identify future medicines savings opportunities – essential in this challenging financial climate in the National Health Service (NHS).
