Paper occupies space and eventually becomes expensive to store. Paper can't be easily shared with other providers outside the hospital walls. Paper can't be automatically copied to the patient's PHR. Paper can't be data mined for quality control, outcomes analysis, and clinical research; we must have those capabilities to eventually be able to improve quality of care and drive down costs.

The EMR/EHR problems with usability, reliability, and interoperability are gradually being fixed (although some vendors still lag behind). At this point there's no going back.