A quality assurance study was undertaken to examine the clinical pathology residency program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. During a three-month period, clinical pathology residents kept a log of all the problems encountered while "on-call." A staff pathologist rated the performance of the resident in terms of how well he or she solved each problem. Of the 109 calls evaluated, one was judged to have been handled incorrectly, and 7 others were considered to have been answered in a conditional manner. The Blood Bank generated the largest number of calls (66), and requests for blood products were the single most common call (29). The review of all on-call problems with staff pathologists proved to be a valuable educational tool, both for the residents and staff. In addition, the study served as an impetus for development of a useful program for evaluating and, if necessary, correcting decisions made by pathology residents.