Application of artificial intelligence in hospital management optimisation: A scoping review

Introduction: Artificial intelligence is revolutionising hospital management worldwide, helping to predict bed occupancy, organise staff and optimise patient flows in all types of healthcare systems. This paper reviews the global evidence so that hospital managers can adapt international best practices to our local context. Objective: To map how hospital administrators and managers around the world use AI to optimize hospital management, analysing what works globally, what challenges middle-income countries face in adapting it, and proposing practical strategies for effective implementation. Methodology: A narrative review of scientific articles, clinical trials, observational studies, and technical research published between 2015 and 2025 in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and BIREME will be conducted. MeSH terms and free text related to artificial intelligence and hospital management will be used. Results: From the articles found, studies from 2015-2025 evaluating AI to optimise hospital management were selected. Most showed favourable results, with accuracies above 75% in predicting bed and staff demand. Methods included automated analysis of operational data, extraction of complex patterns in patient flows, integration of clinical/administrative data, and detection of trends not visible to humans. Good reproducibility, usefulness for management decisions, and low risk were highlighted, with machine learning models applied to public hospitals being more robust. Conclusions: The implementation of AI to optimise hospital management can be a useful strategy under adequate supervision by managers. Information on long-term effectiveness is limited, and questions remain about optimal implementation parameters, which should be investigated in future studies. Noteworthy is the high heterogeneity of studies, small samples without prolonged follow-up, and a scarcity of research with representative data. Descriptors (DeCS/MeSH): Artificial Intelligence, Hospital Management, Hospital Administration, Decision Making. Keywords: Hospital artificial intelligence, management optimisation, hospital managers, global healthcare administration.