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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Thorac Surg Clin. 2017 Aug;27(3):227–244. doi: 10.1016/j.thorsurg.2017.04.001

Table 5.

Postoperative Quality Measures in Clinical Stage I–IIIA NSCLC

Postoperative Measures
Category Quality Metric Recommended By Evidence Grade
Fast track/care pathway Introduce a clinical care pathway emphasizing management of (1) pain, (2) chest tube, (3) mobilization, (4) nutrition, (5) intravenous infusion, (5) oxygen support, (7)wound care, (8) patient education, (9) discharge, and (10) aspiration prevention Numan et al. 2A-2B
Surveillance after definitive therapy Serial chest CT. No routine PET or brain MRI NCCN 2A
Timely adjuvant chemotherapy Systemic chemotherapy is given within 6 months postoperatively ACCP 2B
Timely hospital discharge Prolonged postoperative hospital course after elective lobectomy for lung cancer is defined as >14 days (risk adjusted by STS) STS ---
Darling et al.
Numan et al.

American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Data from Refs2, 3, 20, 30, 61, 64