Mapping The Conceptual Structure of Publications Related to Hospital Accreditation

Abstract

Abstract Hospital accreditation is accepted as a way to improve the quality of health services provided in hospitals and has been used for more than seventy years. The aim of this study was to examine and map the conceptual structure and thematic change of publications related to hospital accreditation using a bibliometric method, co-word analysis. The data used in the study were extracted from the Web of Science database. The data included the studies published between 01.01.1951 and 28.07.2021. SciMAT, VOSviewer, Biblioshiny and Citespaces programs were used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the bibliometric analysis of the 2167 publications included in the analysis, it was found that there was an increase in publications on hospital accreditation and the most frequently used author keyword was quality improvement. The co-occurrence map divided the author keywords into nine clusters: Accreditation, hospitals, quality assurance, education, standards, bariatric surgery, quality, quality improvement and patient safety. Sleeve gastrectomy drew attention among the themes in recent years. The keywords that evolved the most were care and performance. The keyword ‘‘performance’’ evolved into the keywords care, hospitals, intervention and education. The keyword ‘‘care’’ evolved into the keywords care, hospitals, intervention and outcomes. “Outcomes” was a very important theme that studies on hospital accreditation have recently focused on. This study may guide those who plan to conduct research on hospital accreditation. Keywords: Hospital, accreditation, bibliometrics, Web of Science.