Objective: To analyze the present state of public hospital external monitoring research in China, and propose a research strategy for future improvement. Methods: A total of 526 articles on the Chinese public hospital external monitoring research which included in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure published from 2000 to 2014 were employed in this study. We performed the analysis by the bibliometrics method through three perspectives, which included publication date, publication journal and key words. Results: To accelerate the health care reform, previous public hospital external monitoring research in China were just focused on health care management, health economics, and medical insurance. However, researches on the monitoring by non-governmental organization (NGO) and the key point question were ignored. Conclusion: We propose that enhancing participation with NGO and focusing on key point question might be promising research methods of public hospital external monitoring.