Out of the many ways of medicine administration, injections are one of the least favorable. Injections involve penetrating the skin into different layers such as intradermal (under the skin), intramuscular (into the muscle), and intravenous (into the vein). Patients have complained about anxiety, fear, and lack of education adding to the distaste in injections.

There are also many components in addition to the medicine itself that must be accompanied with in order to achieve the needed dosage. Given the opportunity, many patients will choose a pill, patch, or solution to take rather than an injection. This becomes a problem for certain medications in which there is no other choice or that injections produce better results in bioavailability. Medical kits help bridge the gap between medicine adherence and initiation. This article will look at the components of medical kits and how they help with injections.

Contents and Uses of Medical Injection Kits

There are many factors that go into the procedure of injections as well as precautions. Each component of medical injection kits helps with each factor with injections. Now there isn’t a universal kit, so kits may vary based on the medication. Most kits do have similar products.

Most kits will involve a pair of disposable gloves. Gloves provide a barrier between a patient’s own skin and microorganisms from the injection site. Many patients don’t recognize that their own skin has microorganisms that can infect the injection site, including the infamous Staphylococcus bacteria or “Staph.” The material of the gloves matters especially if you have an allergy to a particular material such as latex.

Another product that goes hand-in-hand with gloves is some sort of sanitary product such as alcohol pads or povidone-iodine swabs. This piggybacks the idea from the previous paragraph about gloves. The injection site will penetrate the skin, thus exposing the site to natural microorganisms. By swabbing with a pad or swab, you reduce most of the offending microorganisms to ensure a sterile-like environment.

A corollary component to finishing this process is some sort of band-aid or closure to the injection. To prevent any further contamination, the injections site is covered up with a sanitary band-aid, thus preserving a clean environment from outside factors. Sometimes, the kit may come with gauze to help wrap up the site for even more compression, coverage, and comfort for the patient.

Depending on the type of injection, medicine, and pain level, there may be a slight sensitizing agent in the kit. Certain injections, even done properly, can cause some pain and discomfort. Some kits will come with an agent such as lidocaine to help anesthetize the site for ease of injection. They may also come with some sort of anti-inflammatory agent such as Kenalog, a corticosteroid. Some of the pain is caused by the body’s natural response to inflammation towards the trauma of injection. A few other corticosteroids that might be included in the kit are dexamethasone, methylprednisolone, and betamethasone.

Benefits of Medical Kits

It has been discussed how medical injection kits have made the act of injections easier with its various components. The kits further help out patients, healthcare providers, and more. As seen earlier, there are many components to the task. It can be cumbersome for the provider or even patient to gather these materials separately. Having all components at once simplifies the process. In the same token, it can be a nightmare trying to order each material separately. This puts stress on the inventory, accounting, and storage for the provider. Kits also provide beneficial results for patients as far as organizing and containing everything needed for proper medicine delivery.

The only issue may be whether the medical kit includes a syringe. Most medical kits will not include a syringe that obtaining one will be left to the patient. Another advantage of medical injection kits concerning providers is that some of these kits are actually billable to insurance. Having billable medical kits can reduce medical errors, provide efficient means of accounting, and helps clinics in making revenue. This is primarily due to kits being labeled with an NDC or National Drug Code. These are the identifiers for drugs and how insurance companies can keep track of payment purposes.

A Final Word On Medical Injection Kits

Hopefully, you have a better understanding now of what medical injection kits are, what are its components, and why they are helpful to all parties. Proper medication delivery involves many factors such as proper planning, proper tools, and efficient means. The overall goal is to have good medication adherence thus better well being.