International Publication Trends and Research Focuses on Green Approaches in Healthcare: A Bibliometric Study

Climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the growing environmental impacts of the healthcare sector have increasingly highlighted the need for sustainability-focused transformation in healthcare systems. The need for sustainability-focused transformation refers to the “green hospital” approach a holistic management philosophy—which aims to reduce environmental impacts through energy efficiency, waste management, sustainable resource use, and eco-friendly clinical practices within healthcare institutions. The aim of this study is to examine the development trends and research focuses of scientific output in the field of green hospitals in the international literature using a bibliometric approach. The study’s dataset consists of 3,880 scientific publications published between 2000 and 2026 in the Web of Science Core Collection database and retrieved using the keyword “green hospital.” The data were analyzed using VOSviewer software; the distribution of publications by year, leading countries and institutions, author collaboration networks, citation relationships, and keyword co-occurrence patterns were evaluated. The findings indicate a significant increase in publications in the green hospitals literature, particularly in recent years, and show that research has focused on sustainability, climate change, and technology-supported clinical practices. Additionally, it was determined that China, the United States, and Japan are leading countries in the field’s scientific output, and that research is largely conducted within the framework of international collaborations. By revealing the structure and developmental trends of scientific output in the field of green hospitals, this study offers a comprehensive perspective to the literature on sustainable healthcare and is expected to provide a guiding framework for future research.