Urgent Care Management of Possible Rabies Exposure

Charting Tips

• Although clinical rabies is rare in the United States, potential exposures are not uncommon, and missing an exposure could lead to a uniformly fatal outcome.
• Ask about and document any animal exposures for patients who have returned from endemic areas (eg, India, Africa, Asia).
• Properly refer all patients who will be traveling to endemic areas to the health department or a travel medicine clinic for PrEP.
• For a known animal exposure, bite, or skin injury, perform and document aggressive cleansing with iodine-containing solutions.
• Ask about and document any situation in which a bat may have been present in a closed space, or any encounter (indoors or outdoors) that involved contact with a bat.
• Document the rabies status of the involved animal, if possible, as well as the location of the incident and notification of animal control.