Couplers and assemblies thereof for rapidly insertable central catheters

A rapidly insertable central catheter (“RICC”) insertion assembly, comprising:

• a RICC;
• an introducer needle including:
• a needle shaft including a longitudinal needle slot extending from a proximal portion of the needle shaft through a distal needle tip;
• a sheath over the needle shaft sealing the needle slot thereunder except for a portion of the needle slot under a sheath opening in a proximal portion of the sheath;
• and
• a needle hub over the proximal portion of the needle shaft and the proximal portion of the sheath;
• an access guidewire including:
• a proximal portion including a proximal end;
• and
• a distal portion including a distal end disposed in the introducer needle just proximal of the distal needle tip in at least a ready-to-deploy state of the RICC insertion assembly;
• and
• a coupler coupling the RICC, the introducer needle, and the access guidewire together, the coupler including:
• a coupler housing onto which a securing means for securing the needle hub to the coupler housing secures the needle hub to the coupler housing in at least the ready-to-deploy state of the RICC insertion assembly, wherein the securing means for securing the needle hub to the coupler housing is a needle-hub clip, the needle-hub clip clipped onto the coupler housing in at least the ready-to-deploy state of the RICC insertion assembly;
• and
• and an extension arm connected to the coupler housing to which extension arm the proximal end of the access guidewire is attached, the extension arm terminating with an extension-arm clip configured as a socket into which a proximal end of a Luer connector of the RICC is inserted to clip the extension-arm clip onto the Luer connector, and the proximal end and the distal end of the access guidewire enforcing a loop in the access guidewire over which the RICC is disposed in at least the ready-to-deploy state of the RICC insertion assembly.