The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), an association of national organisations representing hospital pharmacists at European and international levels, has launched a search for examples of successful initiatives to improve hospital pharmacy practice from across Europe.

The exercise is part of a project led by the EAHP Scientific Committee to build an inventory map of good practice initiatives that can provide practical support and inspiration for hospital pharmacists in every country to embark on fresh improvement projects of their own, especially in an era of constrained budgets in the health service.

Launching the exercise, Prof Dr Cees Neef, chairman of the EAHP Scientific Committee said: "As EAHP reviewed the results of the 2010 survey of hospital pharmacy practice in Europe, and reflected on our mission of ensuring the continuous improvement of care and outcomes for patients in the hospital setting, it became clear that we should aim to develop new tools, of a very tangible nature, to encourage ongoing development of hospital pharmacy services in every country in Europe. By creating a European map of completed service development initiatives, we believe we can go some way to inspiring the next generation of innovation and improvement in hospital pharmacy across the continent. We hope all hospital pharmacies that have implemented change and improvement in the past ten years will give consideration to making a short submission for inclusion and help to build an open and accessible database of lasting value in terms of both developing new services, and enhancing the quality and safety of existing services."

Examples of good practice initiatives submitted will be considered for inclusion in the inventory map. However some category areas hospital pharmacists may wish to consider are: clinical pharmacy and other HP role development; clinical trials and research; communication and leadership;   compounding/medicines production; education and training;  inter-professional and inter-sector collaboration; patient safety;  pharmacotherapy; process improvement; procurement, logistics and distribution; resource management; and, use of technology.