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CHIEF TO RETIRE Halton Police Chief Gary Crowell will step down next June PAGE 4 Check out today's special section for some last-minute gift ideas GIFT GUIDE 8 PAGES www.theIFP.ca Tuesday, December 20, 2011 Halton Hills' award-winning newspaper serving Acton & Georgetown 32 Pages 50 Cents (+HST) Halton Healthcare ranked third for lowest preventable GTA death rate By LISA TALLYN Staff Writer Halton Healthcare Services ranked third-best across the GTA for the lowest rate of preventable death. Halton Healthcare Services (HHS)-- which includes Georgetown Hospital, Milton Hospital and Oakville Trafalgar Hospital-- received the ranking in the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)'s recently released 2011 report on Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) for all Canadian hospitals. It received a rate of 74. The top performing hospital for 2010-2011 in the GTA was Markham-Stouffville Hospital with an HSMR score of 71. "HSMR is one of the key patient safety indicators that HHS hospitals along with other hospitals in Ontario, report publicly. It is a "big dot" indicator designed to report on patient safety and quality of care," said Denise Hardenne, HHS Executive Vice-President. "An HSMR rate below 100 means that your hospitals had less preventable deaths than the expected rate for your patient population while a score above 100 means that your hospital had more than the expected preventable deaths than the expected rate for your patient population. With HSMR, a lower score indicates better performance with regard to safety and quality care." See RANKING, pg. 3 A Legendary donation Justine Treadwell of Legendary Motorcar Company, located on Fifth Line, displays some of the toys that employees, neighbours and visitors have donated to the cause. The toy drive will end today (Tuesday) when they will be delivered to the Salvation Army Toy Drive. Photo by Ted Brown Vi s i t o u r s h o w r o o m 7e HANDLE ALL INSURANCE work. 905-877-6944 · your window & door professionals · sTruck Accessories s5PHOLSTEry s(Eavy %QUIPMENT 'LASS s7INDow 4INTING 354 Guelph Street, Georgetown 33 MOUNTAINVIEW ROAD NORTH 341 Guelph St., Unit 3 Georgetown 905.873.0236 www.buy-wise.ca info@buy-wise.ca · awarded readers choice 16 times · (905) 873-1655