COLUMBIA - When Helen Haskell's son, Lewis Blackman, died of complications from a relatively routine surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina, she knew she had to work for better patient safety.

Fifteen-year-old Lewis was taken to MUSC on Nov. 2, 2000, for routine elective surgery. Four days later, he bled to death because of an undiagnosed perforated ulcer caused by an overdose of prescribed pain medication.

Rep. James Smith on Thursday introduced a bill aimed at protecting patients from hospital error.

The bill, called the Lewis Blackman Hospital Patient Protection Act, attempts to open communication between hospitals and patients.

"If anyone had told me, 2½ years ago, that I would be standing in the Statehouse endorsing a bill on patient safety, I would have told them they were out of their minds," Haskell said. "But it was two years and five months ago today that we lost Lewis to preventable medical error."

Soon after his surgery, Lewis began experiencing pain and a fever. Nurses and inexperienced residents caring for Lewis during the weekend did not contact veteran doctors.

The Blackman family did not realize Lewis was not being treated by an experienced doctor.

Under the bill introduced by Smith, D-Columbia, patients would have to be informed of medical residents or trainees involved in their treatment.

The bill also requires:

An attending physician to serve as primary physician for each hospital patient;

Every hospital patient to be seen by an attending physician at least once a day;

Hospitals with more than 100 beds to have an attending physician present in the hospital at all times;

Hospitals to inform patients how to contact key personnel, including the patient's primary physician and the head nurse of the unit;

Hospital staff to wear badges identifying their names, department and status.

Dr. John Heffner, medical director of the Medical University Hospital Authority, said he has concerns about aspects of the bill.

Heffner said he doubts any hospital would be able to fulfill the requirement to have an attending physician in-house at all times. Patients at MUSC are aware they are at a teaching hospital and could be treated by a resident, he said.

Heffner also has concerns about a provision in the bill requiring hospitals to provide patients with the contact information of physicians and medical supervisors. It would overwhelm patients to have a list of people to call, when that is the duty of nurses, he said.