Objective To understand the current situation of patient satisfaction management in public hospitals, and provide reference for improving the level of hospital satisfaction management and enhancing patients' medical experience. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted on public hospitals using a combination of purposive sampling and convenience sampling between May 2021 and March 2023. The survey covered the current situation of organizational support, institutional construction, human resource allocation, evaluation technology, evaluation process, work mode, assessment incentives, and effectiveness tracking in satisfaction management of public hospitals. Results A total of 101 hospitals were surveyed. Among them, 85 hospitals (84.2%) have formulated and issued satisfaction management measures, 37 hospitals (36.6%) have not set up independent satisfaction management departments, and only 27 hospitals (26.7%) have set up a dedicated budget for satisfaction management. 37 hospitals (36.6%) did not use online survey methods for satisfaction evaluation, and 14.9%, 21.8%, and 37.6% of hospitals did not include demographic information such as age, gender, and education level in the questionnaire design, respectively. 66 hospitals (65.3%) use satisfaction evaluation results as the basic basis for evaluating department and employee performance, while only 25 hospitals (24.8%) have set up a satisfaction award for year-end evaluations. There were differences in the specialized budget for satisfaction management and the design of satisfaction survey questionnaires among hospitals of different levels (P<0.05). Conclusion There are still shortcomings in the institutional construction, institutional setting, and resource investment of satisfaction management in public hospitals, which restrict its standardized and long-term development. The informationization and professionalism of satisfaction evaluation in public hospitals need to be improved, and construction needs to be strengthened to enhance data quality. The utilization and incentive mechanism of satisfaction evaluation results in public hospitals are insufficient, limiting their potential in improving service quality and employee motivation.