The British principles had been put into practice since 1967, in Santos, SP, home of the country's first medical cooperative, and since 1971 in Erechim, the pioneer of the state in this type of system. From 1972 until now, the numbers of Unimed Nordeste-RS, a member of the Federation of Unimeds RS, multiplied. In 1974, the institution had 9,000 beneficiaries, mostly small local companies, in addition to those contracted with IPE. Fourteen years later, in July 1988, there were already 80 thousand customers and, in June 1996, 170 thousand. The growth was also in the physical part. At the beginning of a room housed in the São Pelegrino Gallery in Caxias do Sul, Unimed already had its Administrative Headquarters in the basement of the Methodist Church, and later in the building where the Leila Calçados store currently exists, at Rua Sinimbu. In 1982, Sede was installed on Coronel Flores Street until, in September 1993, it was transferred to the current building, at Rua Moreira César. Currently, Unimed Nordeste-RS has more than 1,000 cooperative doctors and adds 300 thousand beneficiaries, distributed in the 17 municipalities in its geographical area. The structure encompasses the Customer's Houses and its own services, which include Unimed 24 Hours, Unimed Laboratories, Home Care, SOS Emergency, Occupational Health, Preventive Medicine, Diagnostic Imaging Center, Hemodynamics, Pharmacies and Unimed Hospital.