Practice redesign efforts to improve the efficiency of primary care practice and increase the volume of patients that primary care providers are able to care for, must take into account all tasks associated with the provision of care, including those outside the face-to-face encounter that often go unrecognized. The following study measures a wide breadth of outpatient care tasks associated with the provision of primary care over the course of an entire year in a large group of academic general internists. To ensure an adequate physician work force to provide primary care, it will be critical that health care reform adequately compensates physicians for nonvisit care and supports improved efficiency in delivering all aspects of care.