Patients seeking nonemergency care at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital will have the option of visiting a new walk-in clinic by next summer, the hospital announced this week.

In a move designed to cut costs for patients and streamline care, the hospital plans to open a walk-in clinic in the former emergency department, which has been empty since the new hospital building opened in 2010.

The walk-in clinic, which fills a hole in current hospital services, is two years in the making, said hospital president and chief executive officer Timothy Walsh on Thursday.

“I think it’s a real win for the community because it gives them a low-cost option for getting in quickly to see a doctor,” he said.

For people with minor ailments, the emergency room can be costly and time-consuming, he said. A patient who presents cold symptoms in the emergency room may end up waiting an hour or two while more urgent cases are attended to, and paying a large bill weeks later.

The new clinic is designed to cut those costs and wait times for patients, Mr. Walsh said.

“The emergency room is a very expensive place to go to get primary care,” he said. “This will be designed more like a physician’s office and will be priced accordingly.”

Dr. Jeffrey Zack, who is chief of emergency medicine, will oversee the new clinic. The unit will be staffed by a physician and a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant.

Mr. Walsh said this is the second major step the hospital has taken to prepare for the Affordable Care Act, federal legislation which attempts to create a more efficient delivery system for health care services.

In April, the hospital debuted its hospitalist program, which has freed Island primary care doctors to open their practices to new patients.

The walk-in clinic will have a similar effect on primary care practices, Mr. Walsh said. Some sick calls to primary care practices can be referred to the walk-in clinic, where ailments like back pain and cold or flu symptoms will be handled swiftly, Mr. Walsh said.

“We’ve all probably been there where you don’t feel good and you can’t see a doctor and you can’t go to the ER because it’s expensive and time consuming,” he said.

Renovations of the old emergency department are expected to involve the installation of a new heating ventilation and air conditioning system and remodeling to accommodate a clinic atmosphere.

The HVAC unit will cost about $700,000 and other renovations will cost another couple hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Walsh said.

Discussions about the possibility of a walk-in clinic began some time ago with Dr. Michael Jacobs, who founded the walk-in clinic at Vineyard Medical Services in Vineyard Haven, Mr. Walsh said. He said the talks ended after it was determined that it would be too difficult to operate a satellite clinic under the rules and codes that govern hospitals.

Last week Dr. Jacobs announced that he had sold his clinic business to Michael Loberg of Vineyard Haven. Vineyard Medical Care, as it is now called, plans to continue its walk-in clinic under the direction of Dr. Gerald Yukevich, expand lab services and enter into clinical research on tick-borne illnesses. Mr. Walsh said once the hospital clinic is up and running, he expects to see a drop in visits to the emergency room.