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Collaboration to Harmonize Antimicrobial Registry Measures (CHARM)
Since January of 2025, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has partnered with Ferris State University to implement the CHARM (Collaboration to Harmonize Antimicrobial Registry Measures) Project in outpatient sites across Illinois. Available at no cost to participating facilities, this partnership aims to drive meaningful improvements in outpatient antimicrobial use across the state.
With nearly 30% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions deemed unnecessary, robust outpatient stewardship programs that can track, evaluate, and improve prescribing practices are critical to combat antimicrobial resistance and optimize antimicrobial use. CHARM partners with health systems to collect outpatient antimicrobial usage data from medical clinics, urgent care, dental clinics, and emergency departments—ensuring coordinated, data-driven efforts across care settings. CHARM leverages this data to provide:
- Clinic-specific insights on antimicrobial prescribing practices through an interactive dashboard. Preview the interactive dashboard here.
- Assessment of adherence to published or institutional guidelines
- Monitoring of progress towards meeting HEDIS measures
- Access to anonymized aggregate data to allow for benchmarking against peer institutions
CHARM also fulfills JCAHO’s requirements for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Ambulatory Health Care.
To express your interest in participating and schedule a one-on-one consultation with the CHARM team, please complete this brief interest form. For any questions, feel free to email us at DPH.Antimicrobial.Stewardship@illinois.gov.
