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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2024.75.03.26
How to Cite:
Kumar, R. (2024). Mapping the role of financial management in healthcare: Bibliometric analysis of Middle Eastern
region. Amazonia Investiga, 13(75), 308-321. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2024.75.03.26
Mapping the role of financial management in healthcare: Bibliometric
analysis of Middle Eastern region
Received: March 7, 2024 Accepted: March 29, 2024
Written by:
Rakesh Kumar1
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9223-4258
Abstract
The study aims to emphasize the importance of
financial management within the healthcare
sector using bibliometric analysis techniques like
influential authors, countries, journals, and
publications. The researcher used the Scopus
database for the extraction of required data. For
this purpose, several relevant keywords and
synonyms related to financial management in
healthcare were used as advanced search options
in the Scopus database. The bibliometric
keyword cluster analysis indicated that financial
management plays a significant role in health
insurance, funding, cost, expenses, financing,
and insurance related to healthcare units in
Middle Eastern regions. The most influential top
5 countries for research in the financial
management of healthcare units in the Middle
Eastern region are Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, UAE,
and Saudi Arabia respectively. Similarly, the
most influential journal in this domain is
“Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal
published by World Health Organization”.
Additionally, the most influential authors in this
research domain are Ammar, Walid S from
Lebanon, and Rashidian, Arash from Iran. The
findings of this bibliometric study are
specifically important for practitioners,
administrators, and policymakers in the
healthcare sector of the Middle East region for
making valuable decisions regarding financial
management practices.
Keywords: Financial Management, Healthcare,
Bibliometric Analysis, Middle Eastern Region.
1
Department of Health Management, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, Saudi Arabia.
WoS Researcher ID: GRF-1362-2022
Kumar, R. / Volume 13 - Issue 75: 308-321 / March, 2024
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Introduction
The term financial management denotes an
organized method of planning, organizing,
supervising, and regulating an organizational
financial resource to effectively achieve its
objectives. (Block et al., 2014). To achieve the
optimal level of resource allocation within an
organization, it is important to implement
efficient practices of financial management there
(Ehrhardt, 2011). It helps to improve the process
of decision-making, decrease financial risk,
adhere to financial regulations, boost the
financial performance of an organization
(Brigham & Houston, 2013). Similarly, to
achieve profit optimization, decrease inefficient
practices, it is vital for organizations to consider
the most efficient financial management
practices. (Rahimpour et al., 2020).
The management in healthcare sector has to
make decisions about their resource allocation,
cost controlling, and revenue management,
therefore, they depend upon efficient financial
management practices (Cashin et al., 2017;
Cleverley et al., 2023; Henson, 2023). Similarly,
a healthcare facility needs to adequately plan and
budget through financial management to allocate
their limited financial resources in an ideal
manner to satisfy the demands of their patients
(Tsofa et al., 2017). Furthermore, in order to
ensure the compliance in accountability, and
transparency in the financial reporting as well as
facilitating the long-term investment and
financing decision within a healthcare unit, the
implementation of best practices of financial
management is crucial (McKinney, 2015).
Moreover, the healthcare units need to give
priority to implement the practices of efficient
financial management to achieve the aim of
sustainability and providing high quality care
(Dion & Evans, 2024).
It is evident from several studies that financial
management practices in Middle Eastern
regions’ healthcare facilities vary markedly from
those found elsewhere in the world and other
sectors (Akhmat et al., 2014; Alzarea et al., 2022;
Mumghamba et al., 2015). Recently, the
healthcare sector has undergone a significant
transition and development in the Middle Eastern
region. This development and transition in the
healthcare units is required due to medical
advancements, evolving patterns in illness, and
the growing population of Middle Eastern region
(Abyad, 2021; Baker et al., 2022; Danaei et al.,
2019; Jakovljevic et al., 2017).
Despite significantly acknowledging the role of
financial management practices in the healthcare
sector, the trends and present state of research is
still lacking and unclear in this domain for the
Middle Eastern region. Additionally, there is a
significant lack of knowledge regarding the most
influential authors, countries, journals, and
articles regarding the role and practices of
financial management in healthcare units of
Middle Eastern region (Mattout et al., 2024).
Therefore, it is vital to consider a detailed
bibliometric study to identify the current trends
for the role of financial management in
healthcare industry of the Middle Eastern region
by identifying the future research avenue and
providing implications for policymakers,
partitions, and administration in this sector.
The objective of this study is to emphasize the
importance of financial management within the
healthcare sector by determining the most
influential journals, authors, articles, and
countries in the Middle Eastern as the
bibliometric analysis techniques. Additionally,
the study aims to address the potential directions
for future research on the role of financial
management practices in healthcare units of
Middle Eastern regions. Therefore, the following
are the specific research aims of the study:
1) To find out the most influential journals
publishing articles in the domain of financial
management in the health care sector of
Middle East regions.
2) To identify the leading authors that
significantly contributed for the research
studies in financial management of
healthcare in Middle East regions.
3) To determine the highly cited top articles for
the research in the domain of financial
management of healthcare.
4) To examine the leading countries in the
Middle Eastern regions where the authors
are collaborating and publishing their
research work for financial management in
healthcare.
The present research is important for the
healthcare sector of the Middle Eastern region for
a detailed bibliometric analysis of their role in
financial management practices. The study
provides valuable insights regarding the role of
financial management for the policymakers,
practitioners, administrators, and decision-
makers in the healthcare sector of the Middle
Eastern region. Additionally, the study helps to
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improve the practices and role of financial
management within the healthcare sector of the
Middle Eastern region by providing valuable
suggestions for future research. Furthermore, the
study significantly contributes towards
sustainable, efficient, and effective healthcare
systems in the target region by considering the
role of financial management practices. Finally,
the study contributes significantly in terms of
improvement in the healthcare financial practices
in the target region by identifying the area of
greater concern in this domain.
Literature review
The research aims to examine the recent research
trends for the practices of financial management
in the healthcare of the Middle Eastern region
using bibliometric analysis. The literature from
developed nations provide extensive evidence of
healthcare sector regarding their financial
management practices. It considered the
financial management’ role for improving the
standardized care and cost control in healthcare
units. Using systematic literature review as well
quantitative secondary data analysis, a number of
studies found that the healthcare units’
operational performance can be enhanced with
limited resource allocation along with cost
control, and efficient system of financial
management (Moons et al., 2019; Portine, 2023).
Similarly, studies based on time series regression
as well as structural analysis found a positive
role of financial management effective practices
on patient’s satisfactions and healthcare unit’
performance (Boamah et al., 2017; Zehir &
Zehir, 2023). Additionally, a review study
indicated that a number of initiatives like
employing competent health professionals,
technologies, and latest health related
infrastructure reflect efficient financial
management practices that significantly
improves the care experience of their patients
(Owolabi et al., 2024). The existing literature
from developed region also provides some
systematic and bibliometric analysis relating to
different roles of financial management in
public/private sector healthcare units. For
example, Cobelli and Blasi (2024) examined the
usage of digitalization in healthcare industry
during Covid-19 using bibliometric analysis.
Similarly, Güngör Göksu (2023) addressed
budgeting and financial management practices in
the public organizations.
Additionally, the literature lacking the evidence
in the form of systematic as well as bibliometric
analysis for the role of financial management in
the public healthcare sector of Middle Eastern
region. However, the literature has highlighted a
limited number of empirical studies from Middle
Eastern region regarding the practices of
financial management and their role in healthcare
sector. Most of these studies claim that the
healthcare provisions in this region significantly
require efficient financial management practices.
For example, a qualitative study from Middle
East region showed that healthcare units in this
region face the problems of limited resources for
which efficient financial management practices
are lacking (Moradi et al., 2023). Furthermore,
the prior researchers using a systematic literature
review and a qualitative study contended on the
role of robust financial management practices to
tackle the growing population’s needs, and
achieve organizational objectives for the
healthcare sector in this region (AlJohani &
Bugis, 2024; Ezzati et al., 2023). The literature
on developed region provide a limited number of
evidence for the bibliometric analysis on the role
of financial management practices in healthcare
units. However, the empirical evidence from the
developing region showed that there is a dire
need to unfold the trends in financial
management practices in the healthcare sector
using bibliometric analysis specifically for the
countries related to the Middle Eastern region.
Therefore, the study provides evidence for
influential countries, authors, articles, and
journals from this region doing research in the
domain of healthcare financial management.
Methodology
The study aims to explore the trends, patterns,
and relationships addressing the role of financial
management in healthcare sector of Middle
Eastern region. Therefore, it is an exploratory
study. This study uses data for bibliometric
analysis using Scopus. It is considered high
quality database as compared to similar
alternatives like Web of Science, Google
Scholar, etc., (Singh et al., 2021). Using the
Elsevier Scopus database provides a detailed
dataset as the most suitable option for conducting
bibliometric analysis (Parlina et al., 2020). The
Scopus database was accessed on March 5, 2024,
employing titles, abstracts, and keywords as the
initial criteria for extracting the target dataset.
The initial phase includes the major keywords
like “financial management”, and “healthcare”.
However, the researcher used 6 alternative
keywords for financial management, and 7
synonyms for healthcare to consider optimized
search query. The query string produced 63551
documents; articles, review papers, conference
papers, books, etc. Furthermore, the query string
produced 60555 documents containing 95%
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subject coverage in the healthcare domain as the
next limitation. In addition, the researcher used
another limit “articles” as the type of documents,
which produced 45500 published articles in the
target domain. Additionally, another restriction
of affiliated countries from Middle Eastern
region was used. It produced 438 articles
published discussing financial management
practices in their healthcare setting. Finally, the
researcher considered the top 15 journals as the
final restriction for the query string for the
Scopus database. It generated a total number of
110 published articles. The study used
bibliometric analysis using the Scopus database
and VOS-Viewer 1.6.20 version. This part of the
analysis performed by Scopus database includes;
yearly publication trends, documents by target
countries, top journals, top articles, and top
authors for the target domain of financial
management in healthcare. The remaining
analysis was performed using VOS-Viewer,
which includes; co-author analysis, and keyword
analysis.
However, there are some potential biases that can
affect the findings of this study. For example,
there may be database coverage bias due to the
exclusive use of Scopus database only. The other
databases may include some important
information that may be missing in the Scopus
database. Additionally, the Scopus database
significantly comprise of the information for
Articles written in English language, which may
create language bias. Therefore, it may overlook
the potential contribution in the literature by the
articles written in other languages.
The study may also include some limitations in
terms of data availability, and methodology. For
example, data availability is confined to period
from 2000-2024. The Scopus database does not
include the data before this period for this
particular domain. Furthermore, the subsequent
changes after 2024 may also not reflected in this
study. Additionally, the limitations regarding
methodology may include the exclusive use of
VOS viewer as bibliometric analysis software as
well as the specific analysis methods like co-
author analysis, co-occurrence analysis, etc.,
which may not capture the further dimension
required in such studies.
Resultas and discusión
Figure 1 indicates a yearly trend of publications
in the domain of financial management in the
Healthcare sector of Middle Eastern region
during 2000-2024. The figures show multiple
phases due to multiple peaks in the publication
trend.
Figure 1. Publication Trend
(Source: Scopus Database)
During 2000-2024, some economies from the
Middle East region conducted some research
studies addressing financial management
practices in healthcare. According to Figure 2,
Iran ranks first by producing more than 65
publications for addressing financial
management in healthcare. Similarly, Egypt,
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, Iraq,
Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, Qatar, Oman, and
Yemen contributed many publications
respectively in consecutive order.
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Figure 2. Number of Documents by Middle Eastern Countries
(Source: Scopus Database)
Journal productivity is measured by publication
count and cite score (Roldan-Valadez et al.,
2019). Table 1 indicates the top 15 journals
publishing their articles for financial
management in healthcare with a focus on the
Middle Eastern region. According to this table, it
is obvious that “Eastern Mediterranean Health
Journal as published by the World health
organization” stood first in the top journal
ranking while Saudi Medical Journal ranked 15
in this list. These journals show the impact of
financial management practices on healthcare
units’ research in the Middle Eastern region.
Table 1.
Top 15 Journals
Rank
SOURCE TITLE
Number of
Documents
Cite Score (2023)
Publisher
1
Eastern Mediterranean Health
Journal
19
3.3
World Health Organization
2
International Journal Of Health
Planning And Management”
14
4.4
Blackwell-Wiley
3
BMC Health Services Research
11
4.4
Springer Nature
4
Archives Of Iranian Medicine
8
4.2
Academy of Medical Sciences
”of I.R. Iran
5
International Journal Of
Environmental Research And Public
Health”
8
7.2
Multidisciplinary Digital
”Publishing Institute (MDPI)
6
Journal Of Mazandaran University
Of Medical Sciences”
7
0.6
University of Mazandaran
”Medical Sciences
7
Globalization And Health
6
18.2
Springer Nature
8
Health Care Manager
6
1.7
Wolters Kluwer Health
9
Health Research Policy And Systems
5
7.4
Springer Nature
10
Health Science Reports
5
1.8
Blackwell-Wiley
11
Lancet
5
146.7
Elsevier
12
Health Policy And Technology
4
9.2
Elsevier
13
International Journal Of Health
Policy And Management
4
5.4
Kerman University of Medical
”Sciences
14
Iranian Journal Of Epidemiology
4
0.6
University of Medical Tehran
”Sciences
15
Saudi Medical Journal”
4
2.2
Saudi Arabian Armed Forces
Hospital
Source: Scopus Database
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Table 2 indicates the top 15 articles with the
research focus on financial management in
healthcare. These journals were ranked based on
their number of citations. The article ranked first
in this list entitled “Past, present, and future of
global health financing: A review of
development assistance, government, out-of-
pocket, and other private spending on health for
195 countries, 1995-2050.” was published in
2019 by “The Lancet” and was cited 259 times.
Table 2 further indicates the first 4 highly cited
and ranked articles from the same publisher. The
other influential articles for the domain of
financial management in healthcare are listed
along with their ranks, titles, year of publications,
time cited, and source documents/journals.
Table 2.
Top 15 Articles based on Citations.
Rank
Article Title
Year of
Publication
Time Cited
Source
1
Past, present, and future of global health
financing: A review of development assistance,
government, out-of-pocket, and other private
spending on health for 195 countries, 1995-2050”
2019
259
The Lancet”
2
Evolution and patterns of global health financing
1995-2014: Development assistance for health,
and government, prepaid private, and out-of-
pocket health spending in 184 countries”
2017
196
The Lancet”
3
Future and potential spending on health 2015-40:
Development assistance for health, and
government, prepaid private, and out-of-pocket
health spending in 184 countries”
2017
148
The Lancet”
4
Spending on health and HIV/AIDS: domestic
health spending and development assistance in
188 countries, 1995–2015”
2018
117
The Lancet”
5
Progress towards early detection services for
infants with hearing loss in developing countries”
2007
70
BMC Health Services
Research”
6
Catastrophic health expenditure after the
implementation of health sector evolution plan: A
case study in the west of Iran”
2016
70
International Journal of
Health Policy and
Management”
7
Tracking development assistance for health and
for COVID-19: a review of development
assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other
private spending on health for 204 countries and
territories, 1990–2050”
2021
67
The Lancet”
8
Out-of-pocket and informal payment before and
after the health transformation plan in Iran:
Evidence from hospitals located in Kurdistan,
Iran”
2017
57
International Journal of
Health Policy and
Management”
9
Rebuilding of the Lebanese health care system:
Health sector reforms”
2006
45
Eastern Mediterranean
Health Journal”
10
Healthcare workers experience in dealing with
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic”
2020
45
Saudi Medical
Journal”
11
A new costing model in hospital management:
Time-driven activity-based costing system”
2013
43
Health Care Manager”
12
Accreditation of hospitals in Lebanon: A
challenging experience”
2007
27
Eastern Mediterranean
Health Journal”
13
Technical efficiency of teaching hospitals in Iran:
The use of stochastic frontier analysis, 1999–
2011”
2014
24
International Journal of
Health Policy and
Management”
14
The impact of health reform in Iran on
catastrophic health expenditures: Equity and
policy implications”
2019
23
International Journal of
Health Planning and
Management”
15
Understanding the implications of the Sustainable
Development Goals for health policy and systems
research: Results of a research priority setting
exercise”
2020
23
Globalization and
Health”
Source: Scopus Database
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Figure 3 shows the leading authors for target
domain and region. The most influential authors
in these are Ammar, Walid S, from Lebanon, and
Rashidian, Arash from Iran with 7 publications
related to financial management in healthcare
from Middle East Region. The minimum number
of articles published are 3 by Alizadeh-Navaei,
Reza, and Anjomshoa, Mina both from Iran.
Most of these influential authors are from Iran.
Figure 3. Documents by Top 15 Authors in Middle Eastern Region
(Source: Scopus Database)
Table 3 indicates the influential author's further
details. According to the table, the most
influential author “Ammar, Walid S” is affiliated
with Faculte de Medecine, Beirut, Lebanon. The
author made the first publication in 1997, and to
date there are 123 documents authored by him.
His H-Index is 43, while he is cited in 71856
documents to date. Similarly, 2nd most
influential author “Rashidian, Arash” is affiliated
with the Tehran University of Medical Sciences,
Tehran, Iran. The author made the first
publication in 2003, and to date there 451
documents authored by him. His H-index is 45,
and he is cited in 8242 documents to date. The
majority of these top 15 influential authors are
from Iran except Hamidi, Samer A. from UAE,
Zaki, Maysaa El S from Egypt, and Harb, Hilda
L. from Lebanon.
Table 3.
Top 15 Authors from Middle Eastern Region
Ran
k
Author Name
Scopus
Author
Id
1st
Publication
Total
Publication
Index-H
Total
Citation
Current Affiliation
Country
1
Ammar,
Walid S
57208159
281
1997
123
43
71856
, Médecine de Faculté
Beirut,
Lebanon
2
Rashidian,
Arash
23095291
800
2003
451
45
8242
of University Tehran Medical
”Tehran ,Sciences
Iran
3
Sepanlou,
Sadaf G
36248136
000
2008
245
94
130943
Diseases Digestive
ResearchTehran, ,Institute
Iran
4
Takian,
Amirhossein
36483640
400
2010
166
26
2116
Public of School Tehran ,Health
Iran
5
Doshmangir,
Leila
44261140
600
2010
121
29
12526
of Determinants Social Research Health Tabriz ,Center
Iran
6
Hamidi,
Samer A.
24366336
000
2008
139
73
74179
Bin Hamdan Smart MohammedDuba ,University
UAE
7
Malekzadeh,
Reza
70051977
60
1988
935
132
164624
of University Tehran Medical
”Tehran ,Sciences
Iran
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8
Rahimi-
Movaghar,
Vafa
65076464
46
2003
442
80
77517
of University Tehran Medical
”Tehran ,Sciences
Iran
9
Zaki, Maysaa
El S.
57203666
922
1995
230
72
87396
of Faculty Mansoura ,Medicine
Egypt
10
Harb, Hilda
L.
57221443
122
1999
62
41
62336
Public of Ministry
Health, Beirut ,Lebanon
Lebanon
11
Piroozi,
Bakhtiar
57188976
684
2012
77
17
1359
of University Kurdistan
Medical Sanandaj ,Sciences
Iran
12
Shahabi,
Saeed
57211581
903
2019
104
31
18396
of University Shiraz Medical
”Shiraz ,Sciences
Iran
13
Soofi,
Moslem
56373891
000
2015
81
36
36629
University Kermanshah
Medical of
”Kermanshah ,Sciences
Iran
14
Alizadeh-
Navaei, Reza
36024974
700
2008
232
36
32728
Cancer Gastrointestinal Sari ,Center Research
Iran
15
Anjomshoa,
Mina
57204563
282
2014
51
35
36450
of University Tehran Medical
”Tehran ,Sciences
Iran
Source: Scopus Database
Table 4 indicates collaboration b/w authors from
10 Middle Eastern countries for research in
financial management in healthcare. It shows that
Iran ranks 1st in this list with 21 collaborations
and substantial influence with 35 links, published
62 documents with 509 citations. Similarly,
Lebanon ranked 2nd with 16 collaborations,
substantial influence of 18, 9 publications, and
155 citations. Furthermore, Egypt ranked 3rd in
this list with 13 collaborations, 19 strengths, 10
publications, and 68 citations. Moreover, UAE
ranked 4th with 13 collaborations, 13 link
strength, 3 document publications, and 18
citations. Additionally, Saudi Arabia ranked 5th
with 9 collaborations, 9 link strengths, 8
publications, and 136 citations.
Table 4.
Co-Author Country rankings (Middle Eastern countries)
Ranks
Countries
Links
Total Link
Strength
Documents
Citations
1
Iran
21
35
62
509
2
Lebanon
16
18
9
155
3
Egypt
13
19
10
68
4
UAE
13
13
3
18
5
Saudi Arabia
9
9
8
136
6
Iraq
5
5
2
5
7
Palestine
2
2
2
5
8
Qatar
2
2
1
15
9
Israel
1
1
1
3
10
Jordon
1
1
2
2
Source: VOS Viewer co-author analysis.
Figure 4 (a) indicates research collaboration
between authors from different countries for
research related to financial management in the
healthcare of Middle East region. The figures
identified the following nodes; Iran, Lebanon,
Egypt, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. The largest node
in this figure is Iran with 21 collaborations with
the following countries; United Kingdom, Italy,
Japan, Norway, Caphri, Australia, Switzerland,
Netherlands, Cambodia, India, Ghana, Brazil,
and Lebanon. It means from the Middle Eastern
region, Iran is connected with Lebanon with one
link strength.
The 2nd largest node is Lebanon with 16
collaborations with the following countries; Iran,
USA, Netherlands, Switzerland, India,
Cambodia, Ghana, Argentina, South Africa, and
Brazil. Lebanon is only connected with Iran
from the Middle Eastern region. The 3rd largest
node is Egypt with 13 collaborations with the
following countries; Jordon, the UK, the USA,
Australia, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan,
Switzerland, and Canada. From the Middle
Eastern region, Egypt is only connected with
Jordon for collaborative research in the target
domain.
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The 4th largest node is UAE with 13 research
collaborations with following countries; Canada,
Pakistan, Belgium, Bangladesh, Ghana, Poland,
UK, South Africa, Philippines, Netherlands, and
USA. UAE is not connected with any other
Middle Eastern country. Finally, the 5th largest
node is Saudi Arabia with 9 research
collaborations with the following countries;
Mexico, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Malaysia,
Philippines, Brazil, South Africa, and Ghana.
Saudi Arabia is also not collaborated with any
other Middle Eastern country for the target
domain.
Figure 4 (a). Co-author network visualization
(Source: VOS Viewer)
Figure 4 (b) indicates co-authorship overlay
visualization. It shows that some dark nodes, and
some light nodes. The dark nodes like Lebanon,
Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine represent co-
authorship with more citations due to
collaborative research in target domain.
Similarly, the light nodes like Iran, UK, Egypt,
USA, Poland, etc., represent research
collaborations with lower citations in the target
domain.
Figure 4 (b). Co-author overlay visualization
(Source: VOS Viewer)
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Figure 5 (a) indicates top nodes as per their size
showing the co-occurrences of significant
keywords. It indicates that financial management
as the largest node which is co-occurred 108
times with the following 16 words; health
insurance (6 times), health expenditure,
healthcare financing (2 times), Govt Financing,
financial management in hospital, hospital cost,
funding, healthcare financing (2 times), public
hospitals. In this case, financial management co-
occurred with the healthcare sector 9 times as per
the Scopus database.
Figure 5 (a). Keyword Co-occurrence Network Visualization
(Source: VOS Viewer)
Figure 5 (b) indicates keyword co-occurrences
overlay visualization. It shows that some dark
nodes, and some light nodes. The dark nodes like
Hospital cost, financial management in
Hospitals, public hospitals, and Govt funding
represent co-occurrences with more citations,
therefore, these keywords are highly
concentrated in this region. Similarly, the nodes
with light colors like healthcare findings,
funding, health expenditure, and universal health
insurance represents co-occurrences with lower
citations are less concentrated keywords in this
region.
Figure 5 (b). Keyword Co-Occurrence overlay visualization
(Source: VOS Viewer)
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Table 5 indicates the keywords co-occurrences in
different clusters and their focus. For example,
the focus of the first cluster (Red) indicates the
role of financial management related to some
common expenditures like health insurance,
funding, and health expenditure for the
healthcare units in the Middle Eastern region. It
indicates that financial management played a
very important role in these types of
expenditures. Similarly, the focus of 2nd cluster
(Green) indicates the role of financial
management in healthcare financing and their
relevant costs in the target region. It means that
the 2nd most important role played by financial
management in healthcare units of Middle
Eastern region is to influence healthcare
financing, and its related cost. Furthermore, the
focus of 3rd cluster (sky blue) indicates the role
of financial management in healthcare insurance
and their related costs in the target region. It
means that 3rd most important role played by
financial management in healthcare units of
Middle Eastern region is to influence the health
insurance coverage and its related costs,
especially in public hospitals.
Table 5.
Co-Occurrence Analysis of Keywords
Cluster &
Color
Keywords
Links
Total Link
Strength
Occurrences
1. Red
Financial Management
17
179
108
Health Insurance
16
97
28
Funding
10
23
7
Universal Health Insurance
11
23
6
Health Expenditure
9
22
5
Universal Health Coverage
10
19
5
2. Green
Health Care Cost
14
86
25
Health Expenditures
13
73
17
Health Care Financing
11
55
13
Healthcare Financing
11
47
11
Financing, Government
12
43
10
3. Sky Blue
Insurance
15
32
9
Insurance, Health
14
29
8
Hospitals, Public
8
19
9
Financial Management, Hospital
7
18
6
Hospital Cost
7
18
5
Hospital Costs
7
18
5
(Source: VOS Viewer)
Conclusions
The study contributes the current knowledge on
the research trends for financial management
practices in the healthcare sector of the Middle
Eastern region. It includes the identification of
top authors, journals, countries, and articles from
the Middle Eastern region for target domain and
region of the study. The researcher used the
Scopus database to extract data on 5 March 2024
using the major key term financial management
in healthcare. The researcher applied several
restrictions to achieve its objective affiliated
countries were Middle Eastern region, the
document type was an article, subject area was
healthcare and medical, etc. The researcher was
able to extract 110 documents after applying all
the necessary restrictions for bibliometric
analysis. The initial analysis using Scopus
indicates the most influential journals, authors,
countries, and articles for target research
domains like financial management in the
healthcare units of the Middle Eastern region. It
include Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal,
Ammar, Walid S (from Lebanon), Iran, and
“Past, present, and future of global health
financing: A review of development assistance,
government, out-of-pocket, and other private
spending on health for 195 countries, 1995-
2050” (published by “The Lancet”) respectively.
However, the bibliometric analysis using VOS-
Viewer software indicates co-author country
analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis
using network visualization, and overlay
visualization. The findings for co-author network
visualization indicated that Iran collaborated
with Lebanon, and Egypt collaborated with
Jordon for research related to financial
management in healthcare in Middle Eastern
region. However, Saudi Arabia did not
collaborate with any other Middle Eastern
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country for the target domain of research.
Similarly, the findings for co-author overlay
visualization indicated that Lebanon, Saudi
Arabia, and Palestine represent higher citations
while Iran and Egypt indicate lower citations
through research collaboration for financial
management in the healthcare sector of the
Middle Eastern region. Moreover, the keyword
co-occurrence analysis using network
visualization indicated that financial
management in the healthcare sector of the
Middle Eastern region co-occurred with the
following keywords; health expenditures,
healthcare financing, hospital financial
management, hospital costing, hospital funding,
and public hospitals. Furthermore, the keyword
co-occurrences using overlay visualization
indicated that hospital cost, financial
management in hospitals, public hospitals, and
Govt funding are the keywords that were highly
concentrated in this region. However, healthcare
financing, funding, health expenditure, and
universal health insurance were less concentrated
keywords in this region. Finally, the keyword
cluster analysis indicated that financial
management plays a significant role in health
insurance, funding, health-related expenses,
healthcare financing, healthcare cost, and
healthcare insurance in Middle Eastern region.
Some limitations can influence the findings of
this study. The limitations include the specific
focus on Middle East region, and exclusive use
of Scopus database. The specific focus of this
study was the financial management practices in
the healthcare industry of Middle East.
Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to
other regions, and sectors. Furthermore, the use
of Scopus as the database for bibliometric
analysis may also restrict data. There might be
more data on other databases that could be
utilized in combination of Scopus database to
explore much better trends, and patterns related
to the target domain.
The findings of this study is important for a
number of stakeholders. For example, it can
guide the practitioners, policymakers, and
administration in the healthcare sector of the
Middle Eastern region about how they can
efficiently use their financial management
practices in their healthcare sector by managing
their healthcare expenses, cost, financing,
funding, and insurance-related cost. The future
researcher can plan their studies based on
keywords with fewer concentrations relating to
the healthcare sector in the Middle Eastern
region.
Funding
This research work was not funded by any
agency.
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