Beneficência Portuguesa de São Paulo

[1] Situated in the Bela Vista district, the Beneficência hospitals have approximately 7,500 employees and 3,000 doctors, and treat around 1.9 million patients a year in over 50 medical specialties.[1] The Beneficência Portuguesa was created by Luís Semeão Ferreira Viana and Joaquim Rodrigues Salazar, small Portuguese businessmen, who were joined by Miguel Gonçalves dos Reis.[2] In the 1950s, under the direction of José Ermírio de Moraes, the first building of the new São Joaquim Hospital complex was built on Maestro Cardim Street and inaugurated on June 16, 1957.The Beneficência Portuguesa de São Paulo has a total of 1,080 beds (233 in the ICU), 52 operating rooms, as well as diagnostic and outpatient departments.[7][8] Its previous name was Real e Benemérita Sociedade Portuguesa de Beneficência, which changed due to the advent of the new Brazilian Civil Code, in force since January 2003, that required charitable organizations to adapt their statutes to the new provisions within a year.