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

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.