Bibliometric Analysis of Hospital Audit Research in China (2010–2025): Trends and Emerging Research Topics

Summary

This bibliometric study analyzed hospital audit research in China from 2010 to 2025 to identify publication trends, research hotspots, and emerging topics in risk management, digitalization, big data, and cybersecurity.

Abstract

Hospital audits play an important role in improving organizational governance, financial accountability, and healthcare quality; however, the development of hospital audit research in China has not been comprehensively evaluated. The aim of this study was to identify research hotspots and emerging trends in hospital audit research in China using bibliometric analysis. Publications were retrieved from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database using the subject terms “Hospital” and “Audit.” Chinese journal articles published between 2010 and 2025 were analyzed using VOSviewer 1.6.17 and CiteSpace 6.2R6 to evaluate publication trends, keyword co-occurrence, clustering, and burst detection. A total of 6,280 publications met the inclusion criteria. Keyword analysis identified internal audit, financial management, cybersecurity, medical equipment, risk management, and recommendations as the major research hotspots. Keyword clustering demonstrated distinct thematic groups with high clustering quality, whereas burst analysis indicated increasing research attention to big data, risk prevention and control, operational management, contract management, financial and accounting supervision, and audit rectification as emerging topics. These findings indicate that hospital audit research in China has expanded from traditional financial auditing toward broader operational, digital, and risk-oriented themes. The results provide a comprehensive overview of research development and may help inform future bibliometric investigations, hospital management practices, and evidence-based policy development.

Introduction

Hospital audit is not limited to financial or compliance reviews but encompasses a wide range of dimensions, including clinical service quality, patient safety, and resource utilization efficiency¹. The core objectives of hospital audits include enhancing healthcare quality, ensuring patient safety, optimizing resource allocation, and strengthening organizational governance^2,3. Studies have shown that effective audits not only identify issues but also drive behavioral change, especially when healthcare teams are aware that performance is being monitored⁴. As a crucial tool for improving healthcare quality, hospital audits have been widely implemented worldwide. From clinical services to financial management, and from individual departments to hospital-wide governance, the role of hospital audits has continually expanded. In China, the growing complexity of healthcare systems has intensified the need for rigorous auditing practices to improve operational efficiency, financial transparency, and overall patient care quality⁵. Given the Chinese government’s increasing efforts to enhance accountability in healthcare⁶, it is essential to analyze trends in hospital audit research within this context.

Bibliometric analysis provides an effective method for mapping the evolution of academic research in a specific field. Researchers can quantitatively assess the development trajectory of academic discourse, not only by identifying research hotspots but also by uncovering emerging trends and shifts in research priorities⁷.

This study proposes the use of bibliometric analysis to review hospital audit research in China from 2010 to 2025, leveraging its ability to process large volumes of literature to highlight publication trends, research hotspots, and emerging research frontiers. Traditional bibliometric analyses primarily focus on metrics such as publication counts, citations, and publication languages, often neglecting the thematic content of the research itself⁸. This study addresses this gap by combining general bibliometric findings with specific explanations of the major research topics identified. This approach aims to provide readers with a clearer understanding of the progress and emerging directions of hospital audit research. Additionally, it offers valuable insights for researchers interested in this field by facilitating the identification of major research trends and areas of continuing interest.

Protocol

Ethics approval was not required for this bibliometric study because it analyzed only publicly available published literature.

Data collection and processing
This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of the research hotspots and trends in hospital auditing in China. All data were retrieved from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database because it is regarded as the premier academic database in China, in which published papers undergo a rigorous peer-review process. Retrieval of the bibliographic information used in this study did not require an institutional subscription or special access authorization. Therefore, no access restrictions affecting reproducibility were involved.

The subject terms “医院” (Hospital) and “审计” (Audit) were used to search the database for publications containing these terms in the Title, Abstract, or Keywords fields. To avoid changes in the retrieved records caused by frequent database updates, the search period was set from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2025. The Subject field (which includes the Title, Abstract, and Keywords) was used to ensure comprehensive retrieval. The search query was constructed as follows: (Subject = “医院”) AND (Subject = “审计”). No restrictions were placed on subject categories during the initial search to avoid excluding potentially relevant interdisciplinary studies.

The search was conducted in February 2026, ensuring that the dataset captured the vast majority of publications from the full year of 2025. All retrieved publications were Chinese academic publications, including journal articles and dissertation papers, published between 2010 and 2025 that focused on hospital audit or related topics. Non-Chinese publications, conference abstracts, news items, and irrelevant studies were excluded. The initial dataset from CNKI was deduplicated using built-in tools and manually verified, followed by further screening based on relevance, document type, and completeness of metadata. During manual screening, studies were considered relevant if their primary focus was hospital audit or closely related topics, including internal audit, financial audit, operational audit, risk management, audit quality control, and audit-related management practices in hospital settings. Studies unrelated to hospital audit, such as general medical research, non-hospital organizational audits, or studies lacking sufficient bibliographic information, were excluded. Before bibliometric analysis, the retrieved records were further checked for the completeness and consistency of the bibliographic information. No additional keyword standardization or manual modification of keyword terms was performed. The original keyword data retrieved from the CNKI database were used for all subsequent analyses. Data related to author names, affiliations, publication type, keywords, and publication year were extracted.

Data analysis
Data visualization and statistical analyses were performed using the software and tools listed in the Table of Materials. Specifically, annual publication trends were plotted, and summary tables were generated. Co-authorship maps, keyword co-occurrence networks, and citation burst analyses were generated using the default software parameters to identify research hotspots and emerging topics in hospital audit research.

Results

Publications Statistics
A total of 6,534 records were initially retrieved from CNKI. After removing 72 duplicate records, 6,462 publications remained for screening. Following title, abstract, and keyword screening, 182 irrelevant records were excluded. Finally, 6,280 publications were included in the bibliometric analysis, providing the dataset for all subsequent analyses. Publications were classified into two document types. Research articles were the most common document type, accounting for 99.90%...

Discussion

In recent years, research on hospital audits in China has increased substantially. However, the trends, research hotspots, and emerging frontiers in this field have not been comprehensively reported. This study focused on the period from January 2010 to December 2025 to explore the publication characteristics of hospital audit-related research. The findings indicated that, over the past 15 years, hospital audit research in China has concentrated on key themes, including internal audit, financial management, cybersecurity...

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database	China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Beijing, China	N/A	Literature database used for bibliographic data retrieval.
CiteSpace software (Version 6.2R6)	Chaomei Chen, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA	N/A	Bibliometric analysis and visualization software.
VOSviewer software (Version 1.6.17)	Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands	N/A	Bibliometric analysis and visualization software.