It indicates a failure of the electrical conduction system of the heart to stimulate the ventricles (which would lead to the absence of heartbeats, unless ventricular escape beats occur).
[1] An escape beat usually occurs 2–3 seconds after an electrical impulse has failed to reach the ventricles.
Ventricular pacemaker cells discharge at a slower rate than the SA or AV node.
[citation needed] The escape arrhythmia is a compensatory mechanism that indicates a serious underlying problem with the SA node or conduction system (commonly due to heart attack or medication side effect), and because of its low rate, it can cause a drop in blood pressure and syncope.
For a patient with a ventricular escape beat, the shape of the QRS complex is broader as the impulse can not travel quickly via the normal electrical conduction system.