Live slow, die old in Mississauga!

Doesnt quite have that bumper-sticker ring, but it could very well be the new branding strategy for the sixth-largest city in Canada.

While hospital row on University Avenue is justifiably famous, theres an outpost of high-quality health care in Mississauga: Credit Valley Hospital and Trillium Health Centre.

This week, as part of Mississauga Rising a month-long series that explores what Hogtown could learn from its westerly neighbour The Globe and Mail considers why the largest 905 burg might be a smarter place to get chemotherapy, hip surgery or treatment following a stroke, despite the prevailing wisdom that Toronto offers the best health care in the country.

Through a landmark hospital-comparison tool developed this year by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Credit Valley (which merged in December with Trillium Health Centre) ranks at the top of the pack among all 14 large community hospitals in the GTA (to clarify: the five teaching hospitals in Toronto, which see much higher patient loads, were rated in a different category).

Based on data from 2010 and 2011, the tool shows that a patients odds of dying in hospital within 30 days following a stroke are much lower at Credit Valley, compared to the provincial and national average. The hospital also beat most of its counterparts when it came to low readmission rates in the 90 days after hip and knee replacement.

And the hospitals becoming a magnet for top talent. In September, it poached Dante Morra, revered internal-medicine specialist and the co-founder of the Centre for Innovation in Complex Care at the University Health Network. Hes Credit Valley-Trilliums new chief of staff.

At the helm of the newly merged hospital is Michelle DiEmanuele, who left Toronto and a range of top gigs in 2008 to become Credit Valleys CEO. We caught up with her in her office.

Youre a Toronto girl. Why are you here now?

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Mississauga rising: Why health care here is better than in Toronto