Standard 5.8 Lung NODES National Quality Improvement Project

Standard 5.8 Lung Nodal, Operative, Dissection, Evaluation, and Staging (NODES) National Quality Improvement Project is a 2-year long (1+1) national quality improvement (QI) project sponsored by ACS Cancer Programs beginning February 2024. The project seeks to aid and assist programs in identifying areas for improvement in compliance for Standard 5.8, which is intended to improve the quality of care and outcomes for patients with lung cancer.

As a participant, you will have the opportunity to learn from national experts and peer programs from around the country and receive extensive support from the CoC and ACS Cancer programs for your local QI efforts.

The goals of this project are to:

• Improve the quality of cancer care and patient outcomes by accomplishing assessment of hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes for all patients undergoing lung cancer surgery
• Assist programs to identify root cause challenges in achieving compliance
• Develop a standardized way for programs to assess and monitor their compliance with Standard 5.8
• Identify and implement successful and sustainable solutions
• Support participating programs to achieve > 80% overall adherence and/or improve adherence to Standard 5.8 by an absolute value of >20%

Programs demonstrating successful participation in the Lung NODES National Quality Improvement Project will receive credit towards CoC Standard 7.3 and Standard 5.8.

Programs will need to submit their intent to participate by February 29, 2024.

Download a PDF version of the Standard 5.8 Lung NODES Initial Application.

5.8 Lung NODES at a Glance Details

5.8 Lung NODES QI Credit

Data Collection Due Dates

Letter of Support Example

Sample 5.8 Ongoing Data Collection Form

FAQ from 5.8 Lung NODES Webinar

COC 5.8 Lung NODES IRB

5.8 Chart Review Workbook

Explore the Operative Standards Toolkit

Educational Webinars

Programs interested in participating in this national QI project are encouraged to view these informational webinars for more detailed information about the project. Attendance is requested by at least one member of each QI team, unless clinical care interferes. Recordings and slides are available through the links below. Registration is required to listen to recorded webinars.

Previous Webinars

December 7, 2023 - Informational Webinar

View the Recording | View Webinar Slides

March 22, 2024 - Lung NODES: Next Steps

View the Recording | View Webinar Slides | Webinar FAQ

Please submit questions to cancerQI@facs.org.  View our Frequently Asked Questions to learn more.