Contributing to the delay in child protection receiving medical records was that the staff sought to exhaust all options when evidence gathering prior to requesting a court order to obtain the records. Staff decided to seek clarifying collateral knowledge when sources of information presented conflicting perspectives regarding the safety and risk regarding the bio father harming a child in the state of WI.  Considering the preferred preference is to place children with parents, as well as to engage fathers, the staff needed time to resolve and clarify the goal conflict between prioritizing engaging the non-custodial father and erroring on the side of safety to ensure child protection by not allowing contact. However, the immediacy of the placement did not allow for time, and during a background check the staff found criminal charges about the non-custodial father harming a child in the state of Wisconsin, yet the extent of the harm was not known and caregivers' statements regarding the Wisconsin charges suggested contact would be okay, and they did not have safety concerns for the non-custodial father being considered as a placement preference. 
Needed time to resolve and clarify the goal conflict again, delay to receiving the records was influenced by the complexity of a MN hospital not being able to release medical records immediately regarding a non-related child without a court order. The hospitals interpretation of statute governing Child Protection Investigation data was not broad enough to release data for another non-related child's injuries, including MN Statute 626.556 Sub. 10 (i) 3 & Statutes 13.384 and 144.291 to 144.298, and other relevant data privacy laws like HIPAA. The hospital was not able to make recommendations for what contact/visitation between the non-custodial biological father and the child, as the information in their records was protected.
WI's interpretation of data privacy also contributed to staff not being able to readily receive records. A difficulty exists in accessing information about non-custodial parents due to limitations defined in various legislative statutes and data privacy laws. The limitations impact child welfare practice, specifically in CP investigations when the delay in receiving records is not aligned with the urgency information is needed during an investigation to ensure safety of children.