Objective To construct a comprehensive evaluation index system for public health in hospitals, providing a basis for evaluating the implementation of public health work in hospitals.

Methods An initial draft of the evaluation index system was formulated through a review of relevant literature and policy documents and multiple rounds of thematic discussions by the research team. A two-round Delphi expert consultation method was used to screen the evaluation indicators and construct a comprehensive evaluation index system for public health in hospitals. The analytic hierarchy process was used to calculate the weight of each indicator, and SPSS 20.0 statistical software was used to analyze expert engagement, authority, and the degree of consensus.

Results The recovery rate of the expert consultation questionnaires in both rounds was 100%. The expert authority coefficients were 0.869 and 0.902, respectively, indicating a high level of expert authority. The Kendall′s W coefficients of expert opinion coordination were 0.245 and 0.281, respectively (P < 0.05), indicating good consistency among expert opinions. The constructed comprehensive evaluation index system for public health in hospitals includes three first-level indicators, eight second-level indicators, and 25 third-level indicators. The first-level indicators are organizational resources, business processes, and disciplinary development, with weights of 0.257, 0.451, and 0.292, respectively. The weight distribution of each indicator is reasonable.

Conclusions The comprehensive evaluation index system for public health in hospitals constructed in this study has good scientific validity and reliability and can provide a reference for the scientific evaluation of public health work in hospitals.