Electronic Medical Record

Hello,
I'm an RN at a not for profit DD/MR facility in Central Illinois. We serve approximately 160 individuals though our residential services. This includes CILAs as well as ICFs <16 beds. We also serve approximately 300 individuals through our day program. In an effort to improve communication within our agency along with improving the continuity of care, our Nursing Department is interested in changing from paper documentation to computerized documentation. Has anyone had any experience with this? We have a strong agency wide computer network. Our IT person assures us our hardware is capable of dealing with Electronic Medical Records. Due to the expense of EMR software we are hoping to accomplish our documentation using Microsoft Office. I would like to know of others experiences with computerized documentation. I'm also looking for guidance regarding the legalities of this form of documenting. Thankyou.