Objectives To construct patient trust evaluation index system based on the background of hierarchical medical system, and to provide reference for the evaluation of the degree of patient trust on medical institutions and offer guidence to the implementation and further improvement of the hierarchical medical policy in China. Methods Based on literature review, the modified Delphi method was used to carry out 2 rounds of expert consultations from 11 experts in different fields to determine the indicators of patient trust evaluation index system. Results Questionnaire recovery rates of 2 rounds were 100.00% and 90.91%, the expert authority coefficient was greater than 0.75, the coefficient of variation of each index was less than 0.25, and the coordination coefficient of experts in the total index were 0.236 and 0.424 (P<0.001). Patient trust evaluation index system was preliminary constructed including medical environment, service trust, technical skills, pharmaceutical and equipment, the overall trust 5 first-level indexes and 20 level two indexes. Conclusions The patient trust evaluation index system can be used to evaluate patients' trust in different levels of medical institutions under the hierarchical medical system.