Asthma Action Team | Overview
The Asthma Action Team at Boston Children’s Hospital Primary Care Center (CHPCC) is a team of doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and social workers who work to help families care for children with asthma. Our focus is on providing quality pediatric asthma care to every patient.
Your child must be a patient in the Boston Children’s Hospital Primary Care Center to participate in the Asthma Action Team.
Our main goal is to work with you to develop a plan to monitor and control your child’s asthma symptoms, and prevent asthma attacks before they occur.
- We help you understand your child’s asthma symptoms and medications.
- We can make necessary adjustments to your child’s medication plan.
- We help identify your child’s asthma triggers and help reduce them.
- We help you identify community resources.
- We provide support services through social work, community agencies and your child’s school system.
- We provide annual flu vaccines.
- We assist families stop smoking habits and decrease exposure to second hand smoke.
- We manage your child’s asthma with their physician or nurse practitioner.
- We also act as the link between your child’s primary care physician and specialty services at Children’s to make sure your child receives the best treatment.
Although we work closely with your child’s primary care team, our visits do not replace regular checkups with your child’s primary doctor or nurse practitioner.
We help families to identify environmental asthma triggers and refer them for assistance to community and city services. We also refer families to the Boston Children's Hospital Community Asthma Initiative for in-home asthma education and environmental support.
Meet our team
Read more about Faye Holder-Niles, MD, MPH
Pediatrician, Children's Hospital Primary Care Center (CHPCC); Director, Primary Care Asthma Program; Medical Director, Community Primary Care
Instructor in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Read more about Linda Haynes, MS, PPCNP-BC, AE-C
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Division of General Pediatrics
About asthma
Asthma is a chronic lung disease characterized by inflammation and spasm of the airways. This causes breathing problems such as coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Asthma can be triggered by environmental factors, infections, allergies, exercise, temperature changes, or other potential irritations to their airway.
Your visit
Availability
- Appointments with the Asthma Action Team are available Monday through Wednesday evenings and Friday mornings.
Referral process
- No referrals are necessary. Any family whose child receives care at CHPCC can call the front desk to meet with the Asthma Action Team.
- The Asthma Action Team reaches out to families whose child has had an emergency room or hospital visit for asthma care.
- We receive recommendations from primary care physicians who identify families working to better understand asthma and improve their child’s asthma control.
What to bring
- Please bring all medications your child receives to appointments with the Asthma Action Team.
Patient resources
Our own Linda Haynes, NP, made a terrific video for pbskids.org that has lots of great information about asthma. It's part of the Arthur Family Health page.
Asth.ma: A blog about asthma from Dr. Ann Wu, an asthma researcher, doctor, and mom, with guest blogs from other clinicians and researchers as well as parents.
American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology represents allergists, clinical immunologists, allied health professionals, and others, and includes helpful resources like "Ask the Expert" and "Easy Reader Sheets."
American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of pediatricians committed to the health and well-being of all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.
American Lung Association is the oldest voluntary health organization in the United States, fighting lung disease in all its forms, with special emphasis on asthma, tobacco control, and environmental health.
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America provides asthma education, advocacy, research, publications, chapters, and support groups. It also has quick facts about asthma, allergies, and more.
Breathe Easy Program is a Boston Public Health Commission program that allows healthcare providers to refer their patients to the Boston Inspectional Services Department to have their home checked for potential asthma triggers.
Medline Plus: Asthma is a U.S. National Library of Medicine page on asthma.
National Heart and Lung Blood Institute is a National Institutes of Health organization that provides the official asthma management guidelines.