Austral University Hospital (Hospital Universitario Austral) is a health care, teaching and biomedical research institution. Its central facilities also house Austral University’s School of Biomedical Sciences (Facultad de Ciencias Biomédicas). It also has five sites: the outpatient clinics located at Paseo Champagnat, San Miguel, Luján and Escobar, and the Officia Specialty Centre. It is considered one of the best hospitals in Argentina and one of the best in Latin America. In 2013 it was accredited by the Joint Commission International, a US organization whose standards assess healthcare activity, medical education and research in individuals. Austral University Hospital was the first medical centre in Argentina to receive this accreditation. The university hospital is a member of the Alianza Latinoamericana de Instituciones de Salud (ALIS) together with the leading hospitals in the region: the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (Brazil), the Clínica Alemana de Santiago (Chile) and the Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá (Colombia). Austral Hospital's mission is "to provide the highest quality and safety in healthcare, placing the needs of patients and their families at the centre of care, integrating care with biomedical education and research, and seeking to live and transmit human and Christian values." History In the 1970s, Doctors César Bergadá, Ricardo Dodds, Leonardo Mc Lean and Enrique Malbrán were looking for "a university hospital that would fulfill the triple goal of teaching, researching and assisting, providing society with professionals with the best technical education and the highest human training.” With this idea in mind, Austral University's School of Biomedical Sciences was founded in 1996, and by 2001 it had its first graduating class of doctors and nursing graduates. Like the university, Austral University Hospital was born as a work of evangelisation of Opus Dei. At the same time, the Pérez Companc Foundation decided to make an investment to support the development of the hospital, which was inaugurated on 2 May 2000. Scientific expertise Austral University’s Academic Health Centre, of which the Hospital is a part, has had seven members in the Argentinian National Academy of Medicine to date: the late César Bergadá and Leonardo Mc Lean, Miguel Tezanos Pinto, Enrique Malbrán, Pedro Saco, Raúl Valdez and José Navia. Medical milestones at Austral University Hospital: Sequential domino transplant that saved several lives with a single donor. (2009). Transplant in a pregnant woman with fulminant hepatitis and subsequent cesarean section (2009). Transplant in a young woman who, while pregnant, was found