Hospitals, especially public hospitals, are an important part of the public health service system. To clarify public health functions of secondary and tertiary public hospitals in China and provide evidences for related health policy decisions, this article introduced the public health services of hospitals in the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, and then analyzed public health functions of secondary and tertiary public hospitals in China through literature review and case study. The authors summed up eight kinds of public health service functions, and put forward policy advices to promote the performance of public health functions of public hospitals in China.

An assessment is a key to public health management. This article reviewed the experiences and researches of assessment on public-health system, as well as public health service quality of medical institutions in America, the United Kingdom and Australia among other countries. On such basis, suggestions were provided on assessments of public health service in China, in order to help the government to improve its indicator evaluation system.