The present study aims to explore the effect of public trust in hospital on complaint behavior in healthcare service, which could provide the foundation for the practice of public trust in hospital.A total of 331 participants who had complained about having a poor consultation experience in hospital were asked to answer the online questionnaire.The results show that: (1) public trust in hospital had a positive effect on both general complaint and third-party complaint, but its effect on third-party complaint was much higher;(2) public trust in hospital affected general complaint via consultation dissatisfaction, but it influenced third-party complaint via anticipated benefits of complaint;(3) public trust in hospital also influenced both the two types of complaint behavior via expectation gap of healthcare service and patients'' trust in doctors, but their mediation effects, especially the one of patients trust in doctors which was much smaller than that of patient dissatisfaction and anticipated benefits of complaint.The results indicated that complaint management is important for the practice of public trust in hospitals.On one hand, complaint management personnel and communication skills could enhance public trust in health care.On the other hand, legal action about complaint management could guarantee public trust in health care providers.