In 1962, Scribner started the world's first outpatient dialysis facility, the Seattle Artificial Kidney Center, later renamed the Northwest Kidney Centers. Immediately the problem arose of who should be given dialysis, since demand far exceeded the capacity of the six dialysis machines at the center. Scribner decided that he would not make the decision about who would receive dialysis and who would not. Instead, the choices would be made by an anonymous committee, which could be viewed as one of the first bioethics committees.