Scribner turned to the King County Medical Society president, James W. Haviland, for sponsorship of a community-supported outpatient dialysis center.

[10] Haviland marshaled support, drawing on his association with the University of Washington and his "clinical sense, wisdom, political acumen and knowledge" of the Seattle community to ensure that the new center operated on a not-for-profit basis.

[12] During these early years of hemodialysis, funding was extremely limited, requiring rationed access to the few available dialysis machines.

Patients who passed the initial medical screening were then further reviewed by an anonymous lay committee that decided who would get treatment.

[17] This funding led to wider availability of dialysis nationally and spurred the growth of Northwest Kidney Center.

These include special care for the most fragile patients, free health education for people at every stage of kidney disease, patient access to dental care, staff scholarships, fellowships for doctors doing advanced kidney study, and funding for research.

Funding from Northwest Kidney Centers helps equip and maintain laboratories and pay for preliminary investigations that pave the way for larger research grants.

[22] In 2017, Nephrology News & Issues magazine ranked Northwest Kidney Centers as the 8th largest dialysis provider in the United States.

[24] On November 10, 2012, during its 50th anniversary year, Northwest Kidney Centers opened a museum and gallery dedicated to the history of the organization and of dialysis treatment.

His results, published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1987, showed that artificial EPO reversed anemia in kidney patients.

[30] EPO hormone treatments have improved the well-being and quality of life of more than a million people with kidney disease.

In 2009, President and CEO Joyce F. Jackson received Washington State Board of Health's 2009 Warren Featherstone Reid Award for Excellence in Healthcare for her leadership and dedication to Northwest Kidney Centers.

[34] In 2014, Seattle Magazine named CEO Joyce Jackson an Outstanding Health Care Executive as part of its annual Leaders in Healthcare Awards.

[35] In 2015, Qualis Health named Northwest Kidney Centers as the recipient of its 2015 Award of Excellence in Healthcare Quality: Outpatient Services.