Objective To learn the relationship and operating mechanism between medical staff's loyalty and patient satisfaction.Methods Medical staff and inpatients of a tertiary hospital in Nanjing were sampled at a 1:2 ratio for study,with 840 questionnaires released and 269 valid questionnaires recovered;medical staff service quality as perceived by inpatients served as the intermediate variable,with Mplus7.0 used to build a structural formula model for an empirical study of the relationship between staff loyalty and patient satisfaction.Results Staff loyalty exerts certain positive influence on patient satisfaction and staff service quality ( P < 0.001 ); service quality also exerts some positive influence on patient satisfaction (P<0.001);staff loyalty indirectly exerts positive influence(P<0.001)via the service quality as perceived by patients(mediation effect value 0.364 > direct effect value 0.143).Conclusions Structural formula model can reveal the relationship and extent of the influence of staff loyalty on patient satisfaction.This indicates that hospitals should enhance the loyalty,medical competence and communication skills of their medical staff for higher patient satisfaction.