Count the minutes, not the sheets
Ask the front desk to time ten case paper retrievals. In most clinics it lands between 40 seconds and three minutes, and a meaningful share end in "not found, make a new one". At 100 patients a day, even a conservative estimate puts an hour of staff time daily into a filing cabinet.
The consultation without history
When the old file cannot be found, the doctor works from what the patient remembers. That is where repeat investigations come from, and where the patient's confidence quietly erodes.
The follow-up that never happened
Paper clinics rarely have a reliable list of who was asked to return in two weeks and did not. This is the largest and least visible number of the lot — existing patients who simply stopped coming, with nobody noticing.
Storage and retrieval at year three
Paper accumulates. Three years of case papers for a 100-patient clinic is a room, and the retrieval time grows with the pile rather than staying flat.
