On Jan. 9, 1962, the Seattle Artificial Kidney Center, now known as the Northwest Kidney Centers opened its doors in Seattle as the world’s first out-of-hospital dialysis treatment center.

In the basement of Eklind Hall, the nurses’ residence for Swedish Hospital, the center contained three beds, allowing up to nine patients to receive dialysis treatments overnight twice a week. The Center’s founders Dr. Belding H. Scribner of the University of Washington and King County Medical Society president, James W. Haviland.

Today, the Northwest Kidney Centers is a not-for-profit community based organization whose mission is: “to promote the optimal health, quality of life and independence of people with kidney disease, through patient care, education, and research.