Happy Birthday Northwest Kidney Centers!
"Middle age suits you just fine"
Who says 45 is not the prime of life?!
In January 1962 the Northwest Kidney Centers was born. Actually, we were called the Seattle Artificial Kidney Center when we were founded 45 years ago. We changed our name to encompass the "northwest" several years later when we began to serve home patients outside Seattle.
We were the first out-of-hospital dialysis program in the world. Therefore, we will forever be able to claim being the oldest outpatient program on the planet with more consecutive years of experience than any other facility.
Our first location was in the lower level of Ecklind Hall on the campus of Swedish Hospital. We provided beds for all patients who came to us for 12-hour treatments, several nights a week. We were able to tap shared services provided by Swedish Hospital but we have always been an independent entity.
We were born from the work of Dr. Belding Scribner, nephrologist at the University of Washington, who developed the Scribner shunt - an innovative hemodialysis access device to make chronic therapy possible. Dr. Kolff in Holland developed the first modern dialysis machines during World War II, but repeated access to the blood stream was not a reality until Dr. Scribner developed his access device. No longer in use, this single innovation revolutionized the treatment of permanent kidney failure. For their work, which has saved millions of lives, Dr. Scribner and Dr. Kolff were given the Lasker Prize in 2002, the equivalent of the US version of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Dr. Scribner turned to his colleague Dr. James Haviland, a prominent Seattle internist, and asked to start a dialysis program for the community. Dr. Haviland is our founder, and lives today at the ripe age of 95 with the knowledge that his hard work and dedication resulted in the premier Northwest Kidney Centers that we know today.
Dr. Scribner and Dr. Haviland believed that non-profit health organizations put the patient and community interest first, making financial profit a "means to the end," not the end itself. So they designed the world's first outpatient dialysis program to be an independent non-profit organization, supported by community donations, and led by a community board of trustees. With our focus on improving the community's kidney health, our efforts to advance research, our training of kidney professionals, and our patient-centered services, we live up to their vision of Northwest Kidney Centers as a model of non-profit health-care service.
We're a fit and vibrant 45 years old this month. Happy Birthday Northwest Kidney Centers!
