Medical records for your adopted child (1106)

What happens to a child’s medical record when they are adopted?

Wisconsin state law says that pre-adoption records must be sealed. This means adoptive parents:

• Have no legal rights to medical record information from before the child was adopted. 
• Cannot give permission to share information that is in those records. 
• Children’s Wisconsin providers do have access to the pre-adoption medical records. They have this access so they can care for your child.  
• Children’s Wisconsin Medical Records staff will keep one medical record for your child. A message will be put into your child’s electronic record. This is called an FYI flag. It shows the date of adoption. The FYI flag will tell us which visits took place before the adoption. These are the pre-adoption records. This information will not be shared with anyone outside of Children’s Wisconsin, except for other health care providers who may need it for medical care. Requests for these records must come from a provider’s office or healthcare facility and will only be shared with that provider and facility.
• The FYI flag will also tell us which visits took place after the adoption. These are the post-adoption records. The post-adoption record will be used to record care for your child at Children’s Wisconsin at any future visits.
• Adoptive parents have access to the records that took place after the adoption.  You may share information from that record. Your written permission is needed to share that information. 
• Adoptive parents may also request pre-adoption information from the State of Wisconsin Adoption Records Search Program by visiting https://dcf.wisconsin.gov/adoption/search.

How do I let Children’s Wisconsin know that I have adopted my child?

• Bring a copy of the legal adoption court papers to your child’s appointment. The copy will be sent to the Health Information (Medical Records) Department at Children’s Wisconsin.
• Fill out a legal name change form if your child’s name has changed.