How to know together? Physicians' co-orientation between hospitals and health centres

Not enough attention has been paid to the complex co-operative reality of health care personnel's work. This paper focuses on the interconnection between two health care institutions: public hospitals and communal health centres in Finland. The analysis presented in this article is based on the accounts of physicians working in primary and secondary care. The article discusses how the context is complex from the standpoint of co-operational expertise and what tensions arise when comparing the accounts. The concept of "knowing together" is used in order to express the co-operative orientation of professionals. The paper considers what it means to "know together", and what professionals see as the boundaries and possibilities when asked to consider patient care chains that stretch across organizations.