Super Centro Carioca de Saúde has already performed 3 million procedures.

The complex in Benfica accounts for approximately 30% of the regulated healthcare services offered to the population. Photo: Rafael Catarcione/Rio City Hall

The Super Centro Carioca de Saúde (SCCS), in Benfica, has already performed 3,4 million procedures (consultations, exams and surgeries) since its inauguration by the Rio de Janeiro City Hall in October 2022. Considered the most modern public health complex in Latin America, the unit expands access to various specialized services via SISREG (Regulation System).

The SCCS complex comprises the Carioca Eye Center (CCO), the Carioca Center for Diagnostic and Treatment Imaging (CCDTI), and the Carioca Center for Specialties (CCE), which together contribute to reducing waiting times for specialties with the highest demand in the city of Rio. Patients reach these units exclusively through the municipal regulation system (SISREG), from family clinics and municipal health centers. The complex represents approximately 30% of all SUS (Brazilian Public Health System) appointments in the municipality.

– The arrival of the Super Carioca Health Center in the city of Rio de Janeiro has significantly contributed to strengthening the performance of the SUS (Unified Health System) in Rio. The number of appointments offered annually by the Municipal Health Department in the SISREG (Unified Health System Regulation) has more than tripled, going from 799 in 2020 to 2,6 million in 2025. Since 2021, we have already made more than 12 million appointments available to the population – says the Municipal Health Secretary, Rodrigo Prado, recalling that, in addition to the one in Benfica, the Rio City Hall inaugurated a new Super Carioca Health Center last March, this time in Campo Grande, in the West Zone.

The SCCS stands out for concentrating differentiated and highly complex services, such as intravitreal injection, dispensing of scleral lenses, peritoneal dialysis, and magnetic resonance imaging with sedation. Each year, the complex expands its capabilities, and by 2026, it is planned to expand its ophthalmological care line and fully activate the CCO's surgical rooms, in addition to doubling the number of eyeglasses dispensed and implementing the Carioca Advanced Lens Laboratory at the SCCS West Zone.

– The evolution is very positive. The SCCS has ceased to be just a large physical structure and has come to occupy a strategic role in the municipal network, integrating specialties, exams, procedures, diagnostic support and care pathways in the same complex. This integration expands the response capacity of the Municipal Health Department, improves the use of regulated services and contributes to transforming the SISREG waiting list into effectively delivered care – says the general coordinator of the Super Centro Carioca de Saúde, Alexandre Modesto.

Centro Carioca do Olho

A leading ophthalmology center in Rio's municipal health network, the Centro Carioca do Olho (CCO) has already provided over 1,7 million consultations, exams, and surgical procedures. Treatments include glaucoma, cataracts, retinal issues, oculoplastic surgery, strabismus, pediatric ophthalmology, and more. The unit houses Ótica Carioca, the first optical store within the Brazilian public health system (SUS), which has distributed over 82 pairs of eyeglasses free of charge. The CCO also performs intravitreal injection, a highly effective treatment for various retinal diseases.

Following accreditation by the National Transplant System, an agency linked to the Ministry of Health, in March of this year, the CCO incorporated corneal transplantation into its service portfolio, a highly complex surgery that restores vision. Five transplants have already been performed since then. It also has an 87% coverage rate for surgical treatment of pterygium (a vascularized lesion located on the conjunctiva of the eye) within its network.

Carioca Center for Imaging Diagnosis and Treatment

The Carioca Center for Diagnostic and Treatment Imaging has already completed approximately 900 examinations: tomography, x-ray, magnetic resonance imaging, biopsy, endoscopy, mammography, electroneuromyography, colonoscopy, and other diagnostic investigations. The unit is currently responsible for 100% of the PET-CT scans offered in the network, an advanced imaging device that helps improve the quality of treatment for cancer patients.

Since 2024, CCDTI has been using artificial intelligence (AI) as an ally in mammography exam reports. With the Breast Cancer Navigation Project, the tool maps possible lesions that are difficult for healthcare professionals to see, helping to reduce the time to breast cancer diagnosis and increasing the chance of treatment and cure. 2.594 cases have already been navigated, with an average time of 29 days until diagnosis. Before the implementation of the initiative, the average time to diagnosis in the network, in 2024, was approximately 144 days.

Rio de Janeiro Center of Specialties

The Centro Carioca de Especialidades has already provided over 595 consultations in various areas such as gastroenterology/hepatology, pulmonology, angiology, cardiology, neurology, urology, rheumatology, proctology, and others. The unit guarantees comprehensive outpatient and clinical specialty care. More than 97 examinations and 55 surgical procedures have been performed.

In specialized dentistry, the CCE stands out for its significant production volume, being the largest in the country, and for its capacity to absorb demands of greater outpatient complexity, contributing to expanding access to specialized procedures and reducing bottlenecks in lines that historically present great regulatory pressure. The CCE qualifies referrals, avoids unnecessary re-referrals, and strengthens continuity of care within the network. More than 10 dental prostheses have already been distributed.